Darker than Night
by The Lightning Phoenix
Summary: "Respect depravity, but never forgive those who have fallen into it." After suffering from visions and nightmares, Toothless leaves Berk in an attempt to find his way. First he meets a curious young male Night Fury, next an injured female Night Fury that brings all three of them into trouble. But when he returns to Berk to find an enemy preparing a genocide, just what is going on?
1. Prologue

**A/N**

**So, it's up. Ready to be enthralled? Good.**

**Now enjoy. Though keep in mind that I spelled "Berk" as "Berq" because wanted to add a little flare and originality to my writing.**

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><p>A loud fear-instilled roar pierced the cold night air, disrupting the previously-peaceful inhabitants of Berq from their slumber. Townspeople awoke, babies began to cry, and torches began to be lit as the people slowly trekked up to the chieftain's house; the house of the accused disruption.<p>

Inside the house a large body of black was covered with beads of cold sweat, emerald eyes dilated and limbs curled up in a defensive posture. It was shuddering in fear, almost hyperventilating, and tears slowly began to form in the corners of the fear-glazed emeralds.

"There, there, Toothless. It's ok bud, calm down," a voice said. The voice continued as the person whom it belonged to slowly moved next to the cowering Night Fury. "Another nightmare again?" he asked as he leaned upon Toothless, giving him comfort.

"You're ok now..." Hiccup slowly trailed off when he heard the banging at the door...the banging that seemed never to cease every night.

He then turned to Toothless, and noticed the dragon was sleeping peacefully once more thanks to his comforting presence. He smiled before getting up and walking through the house to the door, taking a deep breath before opening it.

"Hiccup...this has got to stop" was the first thing he heard as others chorused in agreement. "We can't keep living like this, some of us have children to support!" another cried out.

And so the conversation ended much like it had the countless nights before.

_"I promise it'll stop, I'll find a way to fix it. Good night."_

They would all walk away, some with scowls, before returning the very next night to be unsatisfied with Hiccup's answer.

However that night it was different.

Because Valka was there, standing behind the crowd, a concerned look on her face.

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><p>"Hiccup, this is serious," Valka said as she sat down on the opposite side of the table, an expression on her face not one she'd ever normally bestow.<p>

Which meant that she was deadly serious about what she would say during their conversation. Because Valka wore an expression of grief and regret.

"Why, mum? Surely you've found a way to fix this by now?" Hiccup asked, and possibly asked the most experienced dragon trainer in the world.

"I have," she said simply, "but you're not going to like it."

Hiccup sat on the edge of his chair, a frown already apparent on his face. He knew he wasn't going to like it, knowing his mother wouldn't say such a thing without reason, but he didn't have to like it. It just had to work.

"I'm all ears for anything that'll help, because it doesn't matter about me or my opinion," Hiccup exclaimed profoundly as he looked over to the peacefully sleeping dragon by his window, "all that matters is that it helps him."

Valka smiled, happily impressed by her son's resolve. However it quickly dissipated. She didn't have the luxury to smile in the dire situation, so her face changed back to the hard and serious expression.

"Alright then. Let me give you a run-down of the situation," Valka began, taking a deep breath. "Toothless has been waking in the night with a cold sweat, roaring and carrying on, right?" she asked, and Hiccup nodded. "I know you've tried to hide it from me, but I also know about the scar you now bear on your back," she added and Hiccup froze.

_How did she find out?_

"Astrid told me," Valka said calmly, as if she read his mind. "She said she was concerned about this whole ordeal and wants to help Toothless as much as you or I."

Hiccup sighed. "I guess it can't be helped, but it's not Toothless' fault-"

"-Of course not dear!" Valka exclaimed, making a point that she would never think that. "Look, the point is, Toothless is having some sort of bad dreams or visions from the whole ordeal with Drago. I assume that time he struck out at you, he was blinded by his fear and was indeed seeing a vision of something. He struck you when you woke him, didn't he?" she then asked.

Hiccup could only nod as his arms moved around to his back and he touched the small mounds alongside the deep cuts. "I agree with you," Hiccup said. "I think it's got to do with what happened and I've noted he's become a lot more inward, and doesn't seem to express much anymore."

"It's entirely possible that when he was being controlled by the alpha…when he killed Stoick…that he saw your face when you told him to leave and go away," Valka continued and Hiccup finally realised his mistakes.

Of course it wasn't Toothless' fault that Stoick was killed, but at the time Hiccup's judgment was clouded and he lashed out angrily at Toothless, telling him to leave him alone and to get away. That could have severely damaged Toothless on a mental level, but that was why Valka was there. She had a plan to help.

Hiccup wiped the tears from his eyes and looked to Valka. "Tell me what you know and how you can help Toothless…"

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><p>As Toothless laid in the darkness, listening to them and their plan, he realised that he was indeed becoming more detrimental than ever. What would happen if he was blinded by his visions again, and killed someone? The village wouldn't be able to forgive him, and despite all he'd done he would still be considered <em>broken.<em>

However as he listened to Valka's plan, his mouth curved into a smile despite the tears flowing down his face. He was faced away from them so that they couldn't see his face.

_It's true, though. Every night, whenever I try to sleep, I'm plagued with that monster's evil and hatred. However hard I try, he still lives on in my memory _Toothless thought. He then sighed. _Perhaps this is for the best…_

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><p>"Cloudjumper," Toothless called out his mentor's name, gaining his attention.<p>

"Aye Toothless, how are you?" the large four-winged dragon asked in reply.

"I'm sure you already know the answer to that…" Toothless trailed off with a sigh. In fact all of the dragons would know about his outbursts, but none of them came to ask or do anything. He was the Alpha, he could take care of his own problems.

Despite being the most kindred Alpha the other dragons ever had, he was still responsible for himself.

"Now, don't pull yourself down. You went through a traumatic experience at heightened risks, for the sake of someone you cared about," Cloudjumper said, trying to cheer the depressed dragon up. "I'm sure we can work this out-"

"-You're the Alpha now, Cloudjumper," Toothless stated, and suddenly he felt something lift off his shoulders. That statement and the will that was behind it, made it a reality.

Toothless had just transferred his Alpha status to Cloudjumper.

"W-What!? But you're the only one who can…" Cloudjumper trailed off as he felt the power of an Alpha reside within him. He really was the Alpha. "Why, Toothless?" was all the shocked dragon could ask.

"I cannot be Alpha unless I've rid myself of my problems, Cloudjumper," Toothless replied solemnly. "And I'm leaving."

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><p><em>"Is that really our only option?" Hiccup asked, solemnly distraught.<em>

_Valka sighed before she nodded and replied, "I'm sorry Hiccup. Through all my time in company of dragons, I cannot foresee any other option that will end well."_

_Hiccup took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'll go talk to him."_

_Hiccup then walked over to the "sleeping" form of Toothless as Valka thought it best she took her leave, out of respect._

_"I'll see you in the morning, and it's best that we get it over with as soon as possible. The sooner he leaves, the more chance he'll be able to come back sooner."_

_Hiccup then smiled and farewelled her, then sat down next to Toothless as he heard the sound of the door shutting softly._

_It was then that Toothless turned around and looked to his companion and friend, a look of sadness and happiness in his eyes and on his face. Hiccup smiled, unable to stop the tears from falling. "You were listening the whole time, weren't you bud?"_

_Toothless didn't reply, and instead, moved forward to nuzzle Hiccup with his nose as if to say "It's OK."_

_"Thanks bud…but this is going to be harder on me, not knowing where you are or if you're alright… " _

_Hiccup trailed off as he turned his head to see a bit of Toothless' humour return; as the dragon raised his brow condescendingly._

_"Well, I know you'll be fine, it's just…"_

_He trailed off again when he realised what he was doing. _

_He didn't have to worry; Toothless was going to sort things out by himself; Toothless was going to find his own way by being free. Of course Toothless was free, Hiccup never ever would say he owned him, but Toothless would always be restricted and unable to express himself naturally. He needed to roam the world on his own._

_"I'll miss you bud, now get some rest. I've got work to do."_

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><p>And so, Hiccup had spent most of the night in the forge, making something he'd never thought he could.<p>

An artificial tail-fin that operated via the muscle in the tail; where the tail-fin would normally be operated from. Hiccup didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before, but knowing Toothless, the Night Fury would never accept anything; always wanting to fly with Hiccup.

But the situation had changed.

In all honesty, Toothless didn't think he could rid himself of his problems. He didn't think the plan was going to work, yet he went along with it anyway. Because if he stayed in Berq, he would eventually end up endangering the village; destroying and possibly hurting. That would be when they forcefully evict the dragon from the island, despite Hiccup's pleadings.

Toothless didn't want that to happen, so he had decided to leave on a friendly plea. Now it was morning, and the time had come as Hiccup approached him. Few were present, including Hiccup, Valka, Astrid, Cloudjumper and Stormfly. The sun was only just peeking over the edge of the horizon and the rest of Berq was silent.

"Toothless, I've made this for you," Hiccup said as he presented the tail-fin to him. Cloudjumper and Stormfly watched, fixated, wondering what the new tail-fin would do. They knew Toothless couldn't fly without Hiccup, but when they heard the news he was leaving _on his own_ they didn't understand. But as they watched Hiccup fix the prosthetic on Toothless' tail, saw the dragon flex his tail as if he were flying, and watching in amazement at how the fin acted as if it were his actual fin, they realised just what the new fin was.

Toothless too, watched in amazement at his friend's work, smiling a sad smile. The tail-fin had been painted precisely by Hiccup to match Toothless' black scales, and camouflaged well with the rest of his body.

Despite being Alpha, Stormfly and Cloudjumper were Toothless' only friends whom were dragons. The other dragons wouldn't dare to have any sort of friendship with him, for fear of "getting too close to a Night Fury". So as the two dragons approached him, he smiled at their presence.

"Hey Toothless, how are you doing bud? You know, I had no idea that you were suffering at all and you should have told me," Stormfly began, an expression of concern on her face. "I would've helped you out you know."

"Thanks Storm," Toothless said, using the nick-name he'd given her back when he met her. He had an aptitude for making nick-names. "I really appreciate it, but in all honesty, I don't think that I'll be able to rid myself of these ailments."

"Why not?" Cloudjumper questioned, concern upon his face in vast quantities. "Surely this will help, won't it?"

Toothless sighed with a frown on his face, looking to the ground. "I doubt it, but there's always a possibility-"

"Exactly!" the large dragon exclaimed, startling the three humans that were watching them. Astrid turned to Hiccup with a question on her lips.

"What do you think they're talking about?" she asked Hiccup, who was also watching silently.

"I'd assume that they are encouraging him, possibly saying farewell at the same time," Hiccup replied softly, softly so he wouldn't alert Astrid to the growing weakness in his body. He'd become very upset over the whole deal, with the fact that Toothless being away from Hiccup would supposedly _help_ made him feel all the much worse.

Valka, seemingly reading her son's thoughts once more, moved over to comfort him. "You know that it's not being away from you that will help him, it's being free and able to roam without restraint," she said as Hiccup turned to look at her. "He hasn't been able to fly without you. I believe he just needs to make his own way for a while, and that doing so will help him."

"I know mum, but still I…" Hiccup couldn't find the words as he realised that he was being selfish. Why should he keep Toothless there to suffer? He shouldn't. That's the only answer. He couldn't deny Toothless from freedom for his own personal reasons.

As the dragons continued their conversation, Hiccup, Astrid and Valka could only sit and watch for they couldn't understand a single word being said.

"We'll miss you bro," Cloudjumper sighed with a sympathetic smile. "We do hope you'll be feeling back to normal soon and I'll be watching over Berq for you whilst you're gone."

"Thanks…" was all Toothless could reply, feeling drowned in his sorrow. Although he'd decided to be strong and comply with his wishes of a happy "goodbye _for now_", because he _was_ going to return, he still was having a hard time getting out of those sullen waters. Yet he did know he'd return. He swore it.

"You better come back," Stormfly said with a smile. "We'll definitely miss you."

Toothless couldn't even reply that time so he just smiled and nodded his head as Cloudjumper and Stormfly walked back over to the side. Between dragons, anything physical, including hugs, was normally reserved for mates. That was why dragons always stuck to verbal goodbyes. Even when playing or sparring, dragons still would only do so with their mates, which made it all that much more special.

Hiccup sighed as he moved towards Toothless and removed the saddle gear that was on him, patting and stroking him gently whilst whispering words of comfort to the black dragon. Before long, Hiccup had finished and he smiled warmly at Toothless, only a hint of sadness upon his face.

"It seems that we must part for a while bud," Hiccup said softly as Toothless nudged him with his nose. He looked into his emerald eyes before silently promising that they'd meet again soon. "Goodbye."

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><p><strong>AN**

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	2. Part One: Noxia (1)

**Part One - ****#1 Noxia**

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><p>As the black dragon faded into the night sky, he grew tired. Toothless hadn't stopped for a break the entire trip and was beginning to feel the effects if it. So as he passed yet another island, he briefly wondered if he should rest before he shook the thought from his mind.<p>

He couldn't let Hiccup down by not trying hard enough. How could he overcome his problems without trials?

And so, he continued forward.

But an hour later, he began to regret his decision. _Damn it_, he thought. His entire body was rapt with exhaustion, being deprived of food and water since he left Berq.

The chances of him finding another island before he lost what little energy he had left were very slim. However Toothless knew that he could conserve his energy, making it last long enough to return to the island he'd passed an hour ago and decided to turn back.

"I can't do it...it'd be illogical not to turn back," he groaned aloud as he changed direction, only to find himself staring right into Hiccup's face.

Toothless was puzzled before he noticed the shards of ice around him and Stoick's cold and lifeless body next to his rider.

Hiccup then stared straight at him, eyes full of hatred and despair, and hissed, "_Go...away.._."

It was then that Toothless found all of his energy depleted to a mere dwindle, only big enough to keep him conscious as he fell from the sky and hit the water with a loud _splash_.

Using up the last bit of energy left to float to the surface and drift on his back, Toothless was now paralysed with his exhaustion. He couldn't move, for his body would not respond to any of his commands.

Slowly, the darkness of night enveloped him and as he stared up into the cloudless night and at the incandescent stars, he felt his eyelids droop.

_I'm sorry Hiccup..._

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><p>After drifting, unconscious, for two days, the night-black dragon eventually washed up upon the shores of a large island. As he woke he could feels the granulated sand rub against his skin, irritating him to no end.<p>

He could still taste the residue of something in his mouth, something sweet, and briefly wondered what it was. The last thing he'd eaten was fish, and _fish_ were _anything_ but sweet.

Toothless groaned as he finally opened his eyes to survey his surroundings, his emerald gaze washing over the beachfront where he lay. But...he was _far_ from where the tide could reach, and it looked as if he'd been dragged to the position he was in now. Marks in the sand told him that much.

But who?

Yet as he asked himself that question, he could hear the sound of paws crushing and compacting the sand as whatever it was walked towards him. So he shut his eyes again and waited. He doubted whomever it was would hurt him, seeing as they saved him from drifting out to sea again.

As he heard them come next to him, he could hear them muttering to themselves.

To Toothless, the voice sounded quite young and male. Deciding that they were no threat, Toothless opened his eyes and as soon as he did, they widened further.

As the dragon held a bunch of things in his paws, he looked at the previously-lifeless body of Toothless. Then he had to look again when the piercing emerald caught his eye and realised the dragon was awake, before he shouted out in shock and surprise and fell backwards into the sand.

"Y-y-you're a-awake!" the dragon stuttered as Toothless nearly cried tears of joy.

"You're...a Night Fury...yes?" Toothless asked weakly.

The younger dragon seemed puzzled for a moment before responding. "U-uh...y-yeah? W-why?" he asked.

"Finally..." Toothless murmured before falling back into unconsciousness, be it from shock or that he was still exhausted.

"Uh...h-hello?" the younger fury called out as he poked Toothless before deeming him unconscious once more. Then he sighed. "Well then..." he trailed off as he gathered the stuff he'd brought down.

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><p>Later on, when Toothless awoke once more, he could taste something sweet in his mouth much more prominent than before. He must have had more of it. Yet he'd never experienced the taste before, as it was quite exquisite, and he rather enjoyed it.<p>

However, as he remembered where he was, he began to think of the younger Night Fury. _He couldn't be much older than fourteen or fifteen_, Toothless thought as he looked up at the sky. _It's nearly midday. I should go find him and talk to him._

He then picked himself off the ground and marvelled at how he felt because he was completely restored! He then realised that the other Fury must've helped him replenish his strength. However, as he stretched himself out, there was a pair of ice-blue eyes peering out from the forest line where the beach ended.

Toothless noticed that he had eyes on him and turned directly towards where the younger Fury was standing, and noticed that those eyes were full of fear.

The younger Fury had been able to approach the much larger Toothless when he'd been unconscious when it had been safer, but now that he was awake and restored and truly saw how large Toothless was, he realised what he'd gotten himself into.

_Crap!_ he thought. _I didn't think about what I'd do when he woke up!_

So when Toothless began to move forwards to thank him, the younger Fury could only imagine the sort of danger he was in, and he bolted into the forest.

Toothless mentally slapped himself, realising that he shouldn't have moved until he had been understood as friendly. Then he smiled.

"I suppose a little chase won't hurt," he chuckled to himself as he flexed his neck and released his spinal fins. "I'll catch him and make him understand," he added with an evil grin.

He then lifted his head to the sky and inhaled deeply, locating the scent of the younger dragon that he'd picked up the first time he woke.

"Gotcha," was all he said before he took off at a blistering pace, darting through the forest undergrowth as if there was nothing blocking his way. Despite his size, Toothless easily used his mind's eye to locate the better path to take and instantaneously changed directions thanks to his spinal fins.

_There you are_, he thought as he spotted the Night Fury leaning against a tree, obviously puffed.

Toothless smiled deviously as he pounced at an impeccable speed, giving the young dragon absolutely no time to react. However, as he reached with two metres of him, the dragon caught him out of the corner of his eye and moved incredulously fast, dodging out of the way just in time.

Toothless landed in the dirt before quickly getting up and facing him. The younger Fury, knowing he couldn't escape, began to circle Toothless as he did the same.

"You've got some decent reaction time there," Toothless complimented, not taking his eyes off of the dragon.

"You've got some decent speed yourself for your size, I didn't expect you to be able to follow me and find me," he replied. Then Toothless smirked.

"You're slightly lacking, though," he said with a smile.

"Lacking wha-" the younger Fury began but was abruptly cut-off when one of his back paws caught in a root, causing him to fall over onto his back.

Within milliseconds, Toothless was atop of him, effectively pinning him to the ground. "You're lacking awareness of your surroundings," he answered with a condescending smile.

"-Mnghuh?" the Fury muttered unintelligibly, dazed, before he realised that he was pretty much _dead._ "W-Wait! P-Please don't k-kill me!" he exclaimed, holding his forepaws in front of his face in defence.

Toothless chuckled. It started small, but then his laugh grew until he was practically in tears. The dragon beneath him could only raise his brow in confusion, his mouth still agape from his plead for mercy. Then he grew irritated. "Hey! W-What's so funny?" he asked angrily, only cause Toothless to become more hysterical. "That's not f-funny! C-Cut it out! Seriously w-what's funny!?"

"You...haha, want to know? Well...ahaha..." Toothless began, his laughter finally dying down. _"Firstly,_ I was never going to kill you. _Secondly,_ you currently being pinned by a dragon three times your size and trying to make _demands_ was absolutely hysterical. And _thirdly,_ YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE!" he exclaimed before falling off of the Fury and rolling into his back, completely bawling his eyes out with laughter.

It was then that the Fury's face grew hot with embarrassment at his misunderstanding. "Shut up! It's not that funny!" he exclaimed as he stood to his feet.

"I'm Toothless," Toothless said as he began to calm down, causing confusion to befall on the Fury's face once more.

"What?" he asked.

"My name. I'm Toothless, and toothless," he introduced himself, before smiling a toothless smile. This caused a grin to appear on the Fury's face. "Well, what's yours?"

"Huh?" he paused momentarily before recollecting himself. "Oh. I'm Praze...and I'm, uh, sorry for running away from you. I'm only fourteen, still much a young and inexperienced dragon."

"It's ok I didn't mind the chase, Praze. Nice to meet you," Toothless replied. "I'm not even matured yet, I'm just twenty-two. I still have a few years."

"Wow, really? I ran away because when you stood up you were so large and I thought you were going to kill me!" Praze replied.

Toothless sighed with a smile when he realised who, or _what,_ he was talking to. _A Night Fury._

"Did you know that you're the first Night I've seen in a _very_ long time," Toothless muttered, only then feeling the shock of meeting one of his own kind for the first time. He then smiled in glee.

"What? Really?" Praze replied, surprised, as Toothless nodded his head. "Hmm...well, the last one I met gave me this," he added before turning and revealing a massive gash in his side. Toothless' mouth formed an 'O' as he gasped in shock.

_"What!?_ Why!" Toothless exclaimed, eyes wide.

"I landed on his island several years ago and, well, he was a geezer who's probably dead by now," Praze replied before laughing, "he said, "you young on's need to learn some 'spect", before cutting me up with his claws. Of course he patched me up, or I'd be dead, because he only wanted to teach me a lesson."

"Still, that's shocking!" Toothless replied whilst he shook his head. "Well, when I grow old I _won't_ be some stingy old geezer," he then added with a smile and Praze laughed.

The two then sat there for a moment, before Toothless let out a sigh. "Well, I suppose I owe you one now," he said before Praze became confused once more.

"Huh? Why?" Praze asked.

"Because you saved my life, and I'm grateful," Toothless replied with a smile and Praze couldn't help but smile back proudly. "By the way, I have this really sweet taste in my mouth, was that you by any chance?"

Praze then nodded his head, his pride practically overflowing from his youthful stature. "I found out the medicinal properties of cherries myself, as a matter-of-fact," Praze replied, before Toothless' face grew grim.

"You fed me cherries!?" Toothless exclaimed loudly, startling Praze. "Cherries are _poisonous_ to dragons!" he exclaimed again, remembering only too well that a human had given cherries to another dragon accidentally. What happened to that dragon was something Toothless _definitely_ didn't want to experience personally.

However as he was about to make himself regurgitate the cherries, Praze only burst out laughing. "What!? Cherries are only poisonous to other dragons...we Night Furies have a different immune system. What's poisonous to other dragons, many are beneficial to us."

Toothless then stared wide-eyed at Praze, remembering that delectable taste in his mouth when he'd woken up.

"Give me more."

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><p>Praze stared in shock at the larger dragon's complete destruction of his supply of cherries, before turning his head to the sky and sighing.<p>

"Despite eating up my _entire_ supply of cherries, I'm still glad you didn't kill me."

Toothless licked his lips before giving a grin. "Well I hope our kind aren't as you say, because that'd be annoying. It'd be stupid for dragons to hurt others just over land. Though if they were protecting something such as their young, I would not have a problem with it."

"Oh, that geezer was only teaching me "respect", he wasn't protecting anything," Praze said and Toothless frowned.

"Then I hereby issue him the entirety of my _dis_respect for being the stingiest geezer ever," Toothless stated in a mock-posh accent, making Praze laugh hard.

Toothless smiled warmly at the mere child before him. _He's so young_, he thought with a sigh, before realising something. _But why do I get a feeling of déjà vu around him_?

Toothless had noted that ever since meeting Praze, he'd felt as if something was _familiar._ He shook it off before thinking of a question he could ask the adolescent. He then gave an evil smile.

"Say, Praze, you wouldn't happen to have ever felt as if you were torn in two at all? You know, as if you feel a little empty?" Toothless asked.

"How did you know!?" Praze then exclaimed, feeling surprised. "In fact, I'd only just begun to start feeling like that."

In fact, a soon as Toothless found out Praze's age, he'd begun to reminisce his youth and when he'd first met Hiccup. In fact, he'd experienced the exact same thing when he was that age.

And until now, Toothless had no solid proof for his theory. But now he did.

"Well, then," Toothless began. "It's taken me several years, but I now know that what you're feeling now is in fact the age of which a Night Fury would normally find a mate."

Praze's eyes widened as a blush formed on his cheeks. "N-no w-way! I'm way t-too young!"

"Sorry bud, but your body is ready and wanting you to find a mate. It seems that this is only within Night Furies; the fact that we are ready have mates sooner than any other species of dragon," Toothless teased before thinking of something. "Don't you have parents to teach you that though?"

"Actually, my parents died when I was only four..." Praze trailed off sadly. "On top of that, I have no idea where my brother is. He's seven or eight years older than me, so he should be around your age. I don't know much about him because I think he left about a year before I was born."

"Oh, that's terrible. I'm sorry for your loss..." Toothless trailed off, only imagining the kind of torment a four-year-old would experience from that sort of traumatic experience. "I won't ask you anything about your parents, but do you know what your brother's name was?" Toothless asked, although he wasn't entirely sure why.

"Well, they told me his name was Viri," Praze replied.

_"Viri...don't disobey me again, or else I won't be as forgiving..._" a voice emanated throughout Toothless' whole body, instilling a chill before he felt a throng of pain in his side.

"Ah! What was that?" Toothless asked as he looked to his side where a nasty scar resided. _What? Where did I get that?_ he thought. _I had no idea I had a scar there, could I have gotten it when I was enslaved by the Red Death?_ As Toothless thought, he knew that was the only logical explanation because he couldn't actually remember anything since before he was enslaved by it.

"What was what?" Praze asked, confused by his outburst.

Toothless sat, a cold sweat enveloping him.

"I...I t-think I knew your brother..."

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><p><strong>AN**

**Hope you n-joid ;) be ready for the next one sometime soon. Please leave a review if you did like it, so I know how I did, and remember to follow/favourite ;)**


	3. Part One: Illumination (2)

**Part One - #2 Illumination**

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><p>"I...I t-think I knew your brother..." Toothless murmured with wide eyes as yet again he saw the image of a black dragon with deep emerald eyes, staring into him.<p>

"Huh? Really!?" Praze asked before a wide grin erupted on his face. "What's he like? Where is he now?"

_"__Stop__..." _Toothless moaned abruptly as his head began to pound._How could I have never noticed that scar after seven years?_

"Huh? What's wrong?" Praze asked, looking confused. "Didn't you just say you knew my brother?"

Toothless moaned again before he dropped down to the ground and squished his head in-between his front paws, the pain in it subsequently growing ever more prominent. All the information that was locked away from him, the information that was broken from several years of enslavement, was suddenly becoming more of a burden than usual. The mere mentioning of a name had stimulated the darkest depths of Toothless' mind and had started to rip him apart.

If he was ever to regain his memories, he would have to do it _ever_ so slowly and carefully.

"Praze..." Toothless murmured. The young dragon's ears perked up, sensing the seriousness in Toothless' voice.

"Yes?"

Toothless thought it best that Praze became aware of the situation, the situation that threatened to tear Toothless apart despite already being so mentally scarred. Toothless was actually surprised that he wasn't suffering from any visions at that current time._Is it because I'm in the presence of another Fury? No, wait. __It__ is not the time to be thinking about this now._

"O-Ok, Praze..." Toothless wavered. "I'm going to tell you something, so I need you to listen up..." he began before he took a deep breath. "Ok, I used to be the personal slave of a false Alpha, known as the Red Death." Praze gasped when Toothless mentioned this, before Toothless hushed the dragon with his paw. "I can't remember anything before I was freed from servitude. And I escaped seven years ago, when I was about fifteen or sixteen. Without the help of a, uh...good _friend_ of mine, I probably wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to escape."

"Would that be Viri?" Praze asked excitedly before Toothless shook his head.

"I can't remember," he lied. Toothless thought it best that he didn't reveal too much at that point in time. Telling the young dragon that he was heavily involved with _humans_ probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. For the time being, Toothless was just going to take it slow. "I may not remember, but I believe Viri had something to do with the Red Death."

"So...you don't have any idea where he is?" Praze asked, slowly losing his enthusiasm, as Toothless shook his head. "Damn...I thought I had finally found a lead on him..."

Toothless sighed in dismay, feeling sorry for the younger dragon before him. Toothless was lucky that he didn't remember his younger life compared to Praze, who remembered everything in his despaired life. Parents dying, brother missing, injured badly by an old dragon, only now finally being able to speak to a dragon in an actual _conversation_.

Praze was in worse position than he was.

"I'm sorry Praze..." Toothless said before he looked up to the sky, and narrowed his eyes. "Anyway, it's getting late. The sun's almost set, and I've yet to search this island for a decent place to sleep."

"Oh, no need. Until the sun goes down would you like me to give you a tour of this island?" Praze asked as he begun to stand up. Toothless smiled at his hospitality.

"That'd be wonderful, thanks Praze" Toothless answered before standing up and stretching his limbs and wings, feeling enthused for a flight session after not having one for so long. "What's this island called?" he then asked.

"Well, no one actually lives here beside me. I haven't actually come up with a name for it yet..." Praze replied, scratching his head.

"Really!?" Toothless exclaimed, surprised. "Well you should name it as soon as possible, then it will be deemed as yours."

Praze looked surprised at that. "You mean to say that if I name an island, it's mine?"

"Well, you've already introduced this as your island so it isn't official until you've named it. Why don't we come up with a name together?" Toothless suggested, and Praze lightened up at the thought.

"Sure! That's a great idea!" he replied, feeling a sense of something he'd never had.

Friendship.

* * *

><p>"And...that's the mountain where I live" Praze continued, nearing the end of his island tour.<p>

So far, Praze had shown Toothless most of his island. The total circumference of it amounted to nearly ten kilometres, which would be the distance to run around the entire shoreline. Its shape was close to that of one of the symbols in the ying-yang symbol; one side was like a circle and the other end pointed away from it like a comet's tail to the sun, the difference being the slight curve that made a large cove on one side of the island. In the centre of the sphere end there was a large mountain, where Praze lived, and at the top of the mountain there was a large lake that spanned six hundred metres of a one kilometre clearing. The clearing levelled one side of the mountain, but the other side was a rocky as any other mountain and its tip still reached several hundred metres into the air. On that side there was a large cave that led, from the clearing, deep into the heart of the mountain, and just so happened to be where Praze lived.

"Wow...this is really something..." was all Toothless could say.

"I know, right? No other dragon lives here! It's just me!" Praze replied, a large grin on his face, before he noticed that the sky had finally turned into its vibrant display of incandescent stars. "I think we should be going and getting some rest now, don't you think?"

"Good idea."

So, the two flew down to the clearing and set up a fire in front of Praze's cave, both of them sitting and continuing to have conversations into the night before finally settling down and falling asleep.

For Toothless, it was the first peaceful sleep since he defeated Drago and the Alpha.

* * *

><p>When Toothless had been woken by Praze the next morning, the younger dragon had been ecstatic about going to the beach with him and to comply with his wishes Toothless had gone along and spent the entire day there. They played in the water, dodging waves and swimming, before retreating to the beach to try and makes structures out of the sand and then talking more.<p>

That night Toothless slept peacefully once more.

Next morning, Toothless was woken by an ecstatic Praze again to find that both his and Praze's scales were encrusted with the white crystallised salt from when they had played in the sea. Praze wanted Toothless to go with him to the lake to wash up, and Toothless agreed. The two of them had washed their scales and before they knew it, they'd played and swum in the lake for nearly the entirety of the day and they sat and talked whilst the sun went down.

Once again, Toothless slept peacefully.

This continued for a week, with Praze constantly waking him up to go and explore more of the island. Some parts, like the cave by the shore on the other side of the mountain, Praze hadn't gone in before because he'd been scared to. Toothless, understanding and caring, had gone and explored the cave with him. The weather had also been fluctuating, as per usual for the island, and had cycled between the most prominent weather; rain, and cloudy skies. However, it would seem that Toothless wasn't clear of his ailments yet. He was far from it.

Because on that seventh day he was curled up in ball, constantly screaming, scaring Praze to no end. A week with a Night Fury wasn't enough to help him yet.

"T-Toothless! W-What's wrong!?" Praze had exclaimed, extremely alarmed.

There'd been no response. Only the sounds of uncontrollable sobbing had been heard from the broken Night Fury.

Through the week, the two had bonded as friends quickly through their isolation. Which is why Praze had stood completely helpless, only beginning to feel a deepening sadness for his friend's condition.

After that Toothless had eventually cried himself to sleep, finally allowing Praze to calm down and fall asleep as well.

All Praze knew was that Toothless had a lot of explaining to do in the morning.

* * *

><p>As the sun slowly broke into the cave, it begun to bask on the closed slits of Toothless' eyes and caused him to stir. Eventually the deep emerald began to show through the slits as he slowly opened them, allowing the light to dilate his pupils. Growing more accustomed to the light by blinking several times, he let out a yawn as he began to stretch and stand up. However as he did, he could feel a stern pair of eyes on him.<p>

Toothless turned to find the source of the eyes, only to find Praze sitting directly across from him with a _definite_ stern look on his face.

"Good morning" Toothless groaned as he yawned again.

"Morning, Toothless" Praze replied, not breaking his gaze. Since this was the first time Praze had been so serious, Toothless had noticed something about his eyes.

"Do you have Heterochromia-" he began to ask before he was cut-off by Praze.

"-Don't change the subject" he said sternly, surprising Toothless. "You need to tell me the truth, and nothing but the truth. I was completely useless last night and I felt _terrible_, so _you_ need to tell me what's going on. Right now."

Toothless sighed, knowing he could no longer keep it from Praze. "If you're thinking it's something to do with your brother, you're wrong" Toothless began as Praze sighed in relief.

"Good, I thought that is wasn't but now I'm glad that I know it's not my fault. However I'm more worried about you," he said and Toothless smiled at his concern.

"It's ok, I'll tell you but be aware that I'm not going to tell you everything yet" Toothless said and Praze nodded. "Okay, good. Anyway, something has happened...recently...that has caused my mental state to be, well, _not too good._ This week has been the longest time I've gone without having any nightmares or visions, and I think it's because of you."

"Huh? Really?" Praze asked, confused. "How could I have helped you?"

"Well," Toothless said before smiling, "because you're the best friend anyone could have, and you've no _idea_ how much you've been helping me. I believe that you could really help me get rid of this thing _permanently._" Praze lightened up at the compliment and grinned widely.

"Really!?" he asked and Toothless nodded. "W-Wow...thanks Toothless!" Praze exclaimed as he jumped up on the larger dragon and hugged him. This took Toothless aback but before long Toothless was hugging him back. However for some reason Praze then stepped back and buried his head in his paws.

"What?" he asked Toothless, who was looking at him, "I'm not crying or anything," he protested as he wiped his eyes. "It'd be lame to cry when you're happy."

Toothless smiled widely at his new friend before he felt his own eyes begin to tear up. _Thank you, Praze _he thought. _Without you I'd be lost. _

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, chaos ensued. The clutches of chaos were grasping for one who could change the fate of those around them, yet they were always weary, always evading. The day was coming where chaos won't reach them before the fate of the kind-hearted is changed.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**I would really like to hear your thoughts on the ending, so please leave a review. I would really like to know what you guys think and your ideas. As usual please drop a review/follow/favourite and have a good one!**


	4. Part One: Amicus (3)

**Part One - #3 ****Amicus**

* * *

><p>"No, seriously! You <em>do<em> have Heterochromia!" Toothless exclaimed after inspecting Praze's eyes once more.

After their talk that morning, the two had ended up laying down by the lake in the hot sun. A day with no clouds was highly unusual for the island, being in an area known as a Rain Principle.

The Principles were: Sun, Rain, Snow and Forest. The Sun Principles were prone to more Summer weather, whilst the Rain and Snow Principles were prone to Winter weather. However the Rain Principles didn't ever have snow because the atmosphere wasn't cold enough to change the water into it, Forest Principles were prone to Spring and Autumn weather and Snow Principles bore snow as well as rain.

"What do you mean?" Praze asked, obviously confused to what Toothless was implying. Toothless then realised that the younger dragon probably wouldn't have heard of the condition.

"Well, Heterochromia is where you have two different eye colours but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that you've got Central Heterochromia, meaning your eyes are both the same colour, but you've got more than one colour in both of them" Toothless explained.

Praze stared blankly at him. "I have _no_ idea what you just said."

"Look," Toothless said as he rolled his eyes in exasperation, "your eyes are ice-blue but around the pupil there's, like, an explosion of orange going outward. It's not as prominent as the ice-blue but you can _just_ notice it. Here, come over here and let me show you," he added as he walked up to the lake. "Look into the lake."

Praze did as he was told and he moved towards the lake before looking into it. What he saw was something he'd never noticed before.

Staring back at him was a pair of ice-blue eyes except for the sunset-orange spikes that surrounded his pupils. "Wow..." he trailed off in surprise. _Those are _my_ eyes! _He thought in disbelief. _That's really cool... "_So it's called Heterochromia?" he asked, still fixated.

"_Central_ Heterochromia, mind you," Toothless corrected. "And yes, you do have it. Quite a rare condition and stunning, too." Toothless then grinned evilly before leaning in and whispering into the still-fixated Praze's ear, "I wonder if there's any female Night Furies that are your age, because they'd _adore_ your eyes."

Praze snapped out of his fixation as his cheeks became hot. "Not gonna happen," he mumbled shyly and Toothless could only laugh hysterically.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Praze and Toothless had moved down by the shore and sat on the sand. Praze had <em>tried<em> to hide his embarrassment, but Toothless kept on having a merry old time teasing the poor Fury.

"Amicus," Praze suddenly said out of nowhere.

"I'm sorry what?" Toothless asked, confused.

"Amicus," Praze repeated, "I thought of a name for the island. Amicus."

_Amicus Island...it has a nice ring to it. _"I like it," Toothless said with a smile. Praze lit up with a smile at his agreement.

"Fantastic! Then I declare this island to be called Amicus!" Praze exclaimed before he walked over to Toothless and tapped him. Toothless looked at him quizzically before Praze raised his brow. Then Toothless smiled.

The two of them bolted out of position with Toothless racing after Praze, trying desperately to tag the younger dragon back. Toothless might be fast, but he was nowhere _near_ Praze's speed and reflexes. _If I were to show him my spinal fins then he would be unstoppable..._ Toothless thought as he continued to chase the younger Fury.

But things took a turn when Praze opened his wings and bolted into the air, spinning quickly into a cone to increase his starting speed before releasing it and flying like a spear. _I'm not letting you get away! _Toothless thought as he shot into the air and released his spinal fins.

Praze looked behind him to see Toothless following him and he smiled. _You won't beat me in the air; your size won't allow you to make as sharp a turns as me! _Praze thought with a grin as he began to slow down to bait the larger dragon.

Toothless smiled as he realised what Praze was doing. He took Praze's bait and began to speed up when they both neared the top of the mountain.

Just as Toothless was about to catch him, Praze made an almost impossible turn and began flying above the lake. _Good luck following me now-_ but Praze's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Toothless' wings behind him. "What!-" he began before Toothless grabbed ahold of him and _threw_ him into the lake beneath them with a loud _splash_.

After a few seconds Praze resurfaced to see Toothless far in the distance, and was just in time to hear a "You're it" from him.

"Damn..." Praze sighed. "Aren't you just a bundle of fun?" he muttered sarcastically as he dragged himself up out of the lake and shook himself off. "You suck, so I'm going to wait for you to come to me. Then I'll sneak up on you when you least expect it," he added with a smile.

* * *

><p>Unaware to Praze, Toothless had retreated to the other side of the island and now laid in the thick undergrowth of the Forest, right by the shoreline. Toothless knew, when he noticed Praze not following him, that the younger dragon would try to set up a trap of some sort. So he decided that he would just sit there and wait for Praze's trap to completely fall apart, for Praze to just come to him so he could evade him into the darkness of night. Luckily, he hadn't given Praze the opportunity to take in his scent yet, otherwise he would have to wave all his plans goodbye. Then again, it was equal because he hadn't taken in Praze's scent either.<p>

Toothless wasn't sure how long their game would last, but he was sure that Praze wouldn't give up until he'd at least gotten him "_it_" again.

"Well," he thought aloud, "I might as well get some rest, an afternoon nap won't hurt." With a smile on his face he took to his words and slowly dazed into peaceful sleep.

It seemed that Toothless was now more confident in sleeping again, for in the past he couldn't even _contemplate_ having an afternoon nap. The risk of having a nightmare had been a 100% probability. What about now? It had decreased exponentially.

What was the most surprising though, was the fact that as Toothless delved into a deeper sleep, he began to _dream_.

The word had been so foreign, yet now he was living it. _Dreaming_ it. Dreaming that he was in a clear meadow, the light of the many luminescent stars falling upon him.

_He __began to __run through the clearing as if he were wind; blazing through trees with wings outstretched and pouring his heart into his every movement._

_Then he saw it._

_He looked up to see __a __pitch-black silhouette streak across the sky, almost dancing in the moonlight. He then smiled, and began to call out Praze's name when piercing purple eyes suddenly gazed upon him. He was confused._

_Praze didn't have purple eyes. _

_Then the clearing seemed to warp and dissociate, then it was suddenly black._

Toothless opened his eyes and stretched his wings. _What an odd dream_ he thought. _First dream since _then_, and that was it?_

He then shook his head with a smile. Whatever it may have been, he was grateful for the dream. Whatever is was, it was an indication that he was on his way back to sanity. Despite having a long way to go, he was still on his way. He knew he'd make it there.

He then yawned loudly before cutting himself off abruptly, his instincts somehow in need of use. Then, he was alert.

Something was near.

As quietly as he could, Toothless peered out from the undergrowth and his eyes widened at what he saw. The still form of a Night Fury lay on the beach, and it was nowhere near the small size of Praze. No. This dragon was the size of _himself. _And judging by his and Praze's stature compared to the still form, his eyes widening further, it was _female._

He slowly began to creep forward, insatiably curious at the first appearance of a female Night Fury. _What's it like? What are the differences between male and female, aside from the obvious ones? Why is it here? _He asked himself all these questions before becoming disturbed.

_Why is its wing so demented?_

He looked closer, only now being able to distinguish the shape of a completely shattered wing with almost all of the bones out of place. It was her right wing, and she seemed to have dislocated them horridly.

_That must be so painful...-__SNAP__._

Toothless' thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a stick snapping beneath his feet and his head shot up to look at the female quickly, and he was shocked. Because staring back at him were eyes of deep-purple bore into him and his eyes widened.

He barely had time to react when the female got up and was suddenly on top of him, effectively pinning him beneath her. She eyed him furiously.

"The hell do you think you're doing?" she hissed, and his eyes widened further before narrowing in annoyance.

"The hell do you think _you're_ doing?" he shot back, now equally furious. "I had been peacefully asleep, and I happened to be here first! What's _your_ excuse?"

Suddenly her expression softened, and Toothless felt the weight slowly slide off him as she collapsed on the ground next to him. It was only then that Toothless could feel something on his scales. So he looked down, and gasped.

He was covered in blood. _Her_ blood.

Shocked, he looked over to where she had been laying and found a larger pool of blood before finally looking back to her and he nearly fainted at what he could see. She was completely covered in the sickening, ghastly red. Through it all Toothless could barely find the source of it but when he did, his stomach turned over. There was a massive cut across the side of her neck, blood seeping through the hard scales.

Her jugular was punctured.

Fortunately, it seemed that her scales had suppressed most of the blood flow, but for lying in the sand however long she had, she'd lost a considerable amount of blood.

He had to get her some help and _fast_, otherwise his first meeting with a female Night Fury could quite possibly be his last.

* * *

><p>"<em>Praze<em>_!_"

Praze's ears perked up at the sound of Toothless' voice. _Now I can put my plan into-_ but his thoughts were interrupted by the urgency he noticed in it. _Is something wrong?_

"What's wrong? I'm over here!" Praze called out from the trees beside the lake. Toothless saw him and rushed over to him. "What is it?" Praze repeated. It was then that he finally noticed the blood all over him. "Toothless what did you do to yourself!"

Toothless could only stare blankly at the ground as he huffed for air. "Not...mine..." he said as he continued to replenish his blood with oxygen. Praze's eyes widened when he spoke again. "It's another Night Fury. A female. She's injured badly and will die if we can't help her."

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN****

****I seem to have an aptitude for cliff-hangers that make people annoyed with me. ******_**Hehehehehe.**_****** Oh well, now your interest in the story will grow exponentially with the addition of another Fury. Female, too. I wonder what sort of temperament she has? Well, you'll have to read along to find out ;)****

****Have a good one.****


	5. Part One: To Save and to Trust (4)

**Part One - #****4 ****To Save and to Trust**

* * *

><p>"Praze what do we do!?" Toothless exclaimed, he and Praze now in front of the lifeless body. "Y-You know how to h-heal, right?" he asked weakly as Praze's widened eyes began to twitch.<p>

"It's..._dying,_" he muttered, somewhat for his own benefit. He was trying to come to terms with the state of what now laid before him and he couldn't do much else until then.

"_Yes_ Praze, now _DO SOMETHING__!" _Toothless boomed in desperation, scaring the life out of the young dragon and jolting him into action; examining the body of their fallen kind, before Toothless' face darkened and he retreated up against the trunk of a nearby tree. "I'll leave the rest up to you..._" _he barely whispered as a cold sweat enveloped him and he curled up into a ball, his eyes resounding the pure and utter darkness that resided within him, "_I won't let anyone die on me again."_

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Praze yelled as he stormed up to Toothless, who just ignored him. Praze's eye twitched before he lifted his paw and slapped Toothless with a loud and resounding _smack__, _before he steeled his harsh gaze over Toothless' eyes as their colour began to return. "Don't you _dare_ leave me to do this by myself! Get off your ass and help me save her!" he exclaimed, reiterating the fact that it was _no_ time for Toothless to have another episode.

Toothless then slowly lifted himself up to a sitting position before staring at the ground. "Thanks Praze..." he murmured, "what do you need me to do?"

Praze smiled triumphantly at his success.

"Well, she's lost a lot of blood. Nearly forty-percent. If she loses any more than that, her internal organs will begin to shut down one-by-one and she will die," Praze sighed. "We need to stop the bleeding and heal the punctured jugular."

"But how?" Toothless asked. "It's not as if we're human; we don't have hands to be able to fix this kind of injury!" he exclaimed before flinching slightly at the fact that Hiccup would have been able to help her. _Why could this not have happened on Ber__q__? _He thought before he was led on to another question. _How am I going to tell Praze about Hiccup? What would he think-_

"You might not understand, but I remember now that back from when that geezer hurt me, he _healed_ me with his saliva," Praze said, interrupting Toothless' thoughts. "Night Fury saliva contains regenerative abilities!" he then exclaimed. "All we need to do is lick the wound and allow it to regenerate."

"Oh, and _you_ can lick it because _you_ found her," he added, seemingly uncomfortable at the prospect of doing so himself.

Toothless looked at him sceptically. "You just don't want to be embarrassed because she's female and that's what mates do, so you're just going to stick the responsibility on me?"

A moment of silence ensued as Praze accepted Toothless' accusation.

"You _did_ find her," he argued innocently.

"_You're _the healer here! Admit it! You're just scared!" Toothless replied, knowing full well that it was _exactly_ as he said.

"We don't have time for this, she could die any moment!" Praze bit back. "It is absolutely _paramount_ that we focus on her, unless you want her death to be on _your_ paws?"

Toothless grumbled something unintelligent before letting out a sigh.

"Fine."

* * *

><p>As Toothless and Praze lay beside the comatose female Fury, the two began to ponder the significance of what had occurred and what <em>will<em> occur. Things would surely be different.

"How is she?" Toothless asked as he placed the remaining stacks of firewood on the sand and began to form a tripod of sticks and Praze looked up at him when he placed down his own stacks.

"She seems to be doing fine," he replied as he walked over to her. "I've given her some cherry juice to boost her natural regenerative abilities but she'll be in a coma for a while. All we can do is wait." Toothless let out a sigh of relief before collapsing on the ground beside the teepee of sticks and rolling onto his back, swiftly blowing a small ball of fire onto them and lighting them up with an orange hue.

"This should keep her, and _us,_ warm whilst we watch over her," Toothless murmured to himself before he turned his gaze back to the younger Fury. "How close was she?"

"Hard to say," Praze replied, "but she'll be in a coma until her blood volume returns to normal. I've estimated a thirty-eight percent loss of total blood volume. She's lucky to be alive." Toothless then smiled.

"When did you get so good at all this stuff? Back on Ber- I mean, where I'm from, the healers were never as good a healer as you." Toothless sighed mentally at his slip up before accumulated his resolve and made a decision.

It was time to tell Praze.

He now trusted him more than any other dragon, besides Stormfly and Cloudjumper, and would act accordingly. Friends didn't keep secrets unless they were to cause detriment from their appraisal.

Praze then beamed with pride. "You mustn't have very good healers where you're from, I'm just a novice."

"Yeah but if you had more knowledge you'd be able to possibly become the best healer out of all the Principles!" Toothless exclaimed with a grin before the two of them noticed the cloak of darkness approach the horizon. The sun was setting. "Praze." The statement was flat, yet firm, and Praze's eyes turned on him as he rolled to lie on his stomach.

"Yeah?" he asked back, unsure about Toothless' seriousness.

"I think it's time I tell you who I am."

* * *

><p>After that, both Praze and Toothless had a lengthy discussion including many of Toothless' adventures, beginning from the only place he could: the Red Death.<p>

After the initial shock of hearing of Toothless' involvement with humans, Praze began to piece together the puzzle. Despite not knowing anything of Viri, Toothless had told of how he defeated the false alpha, the "Red Death", but only with the help of Hiccup.

A human.

"Humans and Dragons?" Praze had asked in disbelief. He couldn't imagine such a harmony, so Toothless had told him that once the whole ordeal with the female Night Fury had ended, he would take him to Berq to meet the human Toothless thought so highly of.

After telling of the defeat of the Red Death, Toothless moved on to Hiccup and his' travels throughout their known world. Discovering new lands with differentiations in Principles; a change from the usual bleak Sun Principle of Berq. It most certainly didn't seem like it, with its rare cold weather including snowfall, despite being a Sun Principle. At least there weren't rainstorms. Normally.

Praze was also surprised to hear that Toothless had never been in or seen a Snow Principle, but then again, he hadn't either. They were supposedly the most rarest of all the Principles. Nobody knew how the Principles worked, apparently it was something to do with the atmosphere, which no one would be able to analyse for centuries to come.

After their discussion on Principles and with the two of them deciding their favourite Principle was Rain, Toothless began to tell of his and Hiccup's discovery of the Dragon Hunters and of the destruction and chaos that ensued afterwards. Then, came the ending of the story and along with it came the truth about Toothless' condition.

"You mean to say that you defeated an _Alpha Bewilderbeast_!?" Praze exclaimed incredulously. Toothless nodded his head. "This Bewilderbeast...was an _Alpha_, right?" Again, Toothless nodded his head. Praze was shocked. "T-T-T-Then...y-you're an _Alpha_!?"

"Well, no...not at this point in time," Toothless replied with a sigh. "It's complicated..." Praze took a moment to take in all the information. Then, he used his mind to create scenarios. Then he plotted through them, and selected the most appropriate one.

"So...you left the title of Alpha to one whom you trust, on Berq, because you were no longer fit to be Alpha, and you ended up here?" Praze theorised with a brow raised. Toothless could only smile at the young Fury's intuition.

"Praze, did you come up with that situation all in your head, within that short amount of time after I finished telling you?" Toothless asked and Praze nodded. Toothless sighed in awe at the intelligence before him. "You know, you're _very_ intelligent. Has ever told you that?" he asked and Praze began to scratch his head.

"Well...no," he replied shortly. "You're forgetting that I've never met anyone before, aside from the geezer."

"Oh yeah that's right..." Toothless trailed off before there was a moment of silence. A few minutes passed as the two stared up at the sky and watched the stars burn bright, before Praze eventually broke the silence.

"So was I right?" he asked as Toothless faced him.

"More or less," he replied. "I kept on having nightmares that disturbed our village, I had to leave otherwise I ran the risk of potentially hurting the townspeople. I had already hurt Hiccup..." he trailed off when Praze remembered something from earlier.

"Say, Toothless, I forgot to ask this earlier, but may I see it?" Toothless ears perked up as he tilted his head in confusion. "Your tail, can I see it?"

"Oh. That...yeah sure," Toothless replied. "You won't be able to deduce much though. Hiccup is a very talented artist and he made the replica look almost exactly like my other fin." With that Toothless brought his tail around in front of him and allowed Praze to inspect it. As Praze did so, he brought his paw up to it and gently knocked on it, producing a sturdy _clang_ sound of the loose metal it was made from. "In case you're wondering, Hiccup designed it and built it from scratch with a metal he invented. He called it Aluminium. On the inside, there are bars of the stuff that support it whilst over the top there's a leather coating similar to that of our scales. He spent forever calibrating it to work with the muscle in my tail. It's the only thing I have left of him as of now, so I can't wait to get over this ordeal and return."

Praze looked up to him and smiled at his words. "Oh, you will. I know it."

Toothless smiled back before he came to mind about something. He didn't know whether or not it was because Praze was his own kind, but he felt as if he'd known him his whole life. They'd grown into a friendship that could only be expressed as pure trust and adoration. "Praze...I trust you with my life. I don't want to be separated from you, the first of my kind I've met, so I'm asking if you would allow me to take in your scent. I trust you with mine, also. You don't have to if you-"

"-Of course!" Praze exclaimed, surprising Toothless enough to confuse him momentarily.

When it came to dragons and their scents, they were _very_ selective of whom they share theirs with. There was the scent you get when you're near another dragon that allows you to track them to a certain degree, but it was never permanent. No dragon would give out their constant location _permanently_ to just anyone. That was what "taking in their scent" meant. This was also how dragons had an impeccable sense of direction whenever they where navigating to places they've been, because specific islands had individual scents as well as dragons.

When a dragon takes in another's scent, they associate it with some worldly scent. Which is why, as Toothless and Praze exchanged their scents, Praze came to associate Toothless' scent with a seaside forest; salty, lively and fresh. Coincidentally, Toothless came to associate Praze's scent with cherries. Of course, it was well-known that when you associate scents, you often associate from memories. In this case, the two associated the scents from when they first met on Amicus' main beach in the cove.

When all that was said and done, Praze had suggested that Toothless take in Amicus' scent for when he would eventually leave. That was when the two had finally noticed the blood that stained Toothless' black scales.

"Ok...you're going to have to go wash that off..." was all Praze had said, before Toothless left him to watch over the female Fury so he could wash off in the lake. Unless he wanted the white and crystallised salt to stick to him like it did when he'd swum in the sea, he'd have to wash in the lake instead of the sea right before them.

So now, as he sat in the shallows of the lake, the starry night sky reflecting upon the surface, he was able to _think_ about the situation.

_How did she pin me whilst in all that pain? How did she even have the strength to? _he thought as he began to scrub off the residual blood on his chest. _Who even did that to her? Why? How old is she? Does she have a mate?_

His face heated up when he realised just what he was thinking, and he cursed his thought process for drifting. But deep down he knew.

Sooner or later, he would get some answers. Sooner or later, she would wake up.

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><p><strong><strong>Sorry for the long wait, I've been really busy. I planned on having this done and up by last <strong>****_**Friday**_******, but only just finished it literally within five minutes of posting this xD. Anyway, please leave a review and follow/favourite as you please ;)****

****See you in the next one, so have a good one!****


	6. Part One: Azure Haze (5)

****Part One #5 – ********Azure Haze****

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><p>A week had passed since the arrival of the female Fury and after all the time spent just sitting around near her, Praze had learnt a great deal about Berq from Toothless. He learnt more about the coexisting village that had spiked his curiosity incredulously.<p>

But what _Toothless_ was curious about was right before them. The female Fury.

Many questions surrounded her and her arrival. Most of them were _why _questions, but there were the odd stragglers such as _who _and _how. _Just_ who _wasthe strange female Fury? Not just _why_ but _how _did she receive her injuries? _Who_ did she receive them from? It was apparently clear that she had gotten into a fight. _Did she deserve it?_

_No_ Toothless had thought. He shouldn't have been jumping to conclusions like that anytime soon. That would have to wait until she awoke.

However, little did they know, she was going to wake sooner than they thought.

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><p>"So, what's this Stormcutter like?" Praze asked, enthused for another of the rare species of dragon beside Night Furies. "I know you trusted him the most on Berq, besides Hiccup, and that you entrusted the <em>Alpha<em> status to him, but what is he actually like? I've never met one of his kind before."

"Well, he's certainly got a level of humour about him and he never seems to stop babbling about things that could potentially embarrass me," Toothless replied. "In short, he's like an older brother, or, should I say, mentor."

"That's cool, I'd certainly like to meet him," Praze said with a smile, "but what about this Nadder? I thought they were cowardice, how could you have ever befriended one?"

Praze had a point there.

Night Furies were definitely the species to avoid. Everyone seemed to think Whispering Deaths were bad, but that was only because there were more sightings and incidents involving Whispering Deaths. The only Night Fury they had was the adorable Toothless that was _anything_ but the namesake of "_Unholy __O__ffspring of Lightning and Death __I__tself"_; surely a title he'd earned only through being controlled by the false Alpha. If only they had dealt with a Fury when they really were in _fury_. Even Toothless never used excessive force but if he showed humans his _true_ potential, they would know that Night Furies were hundreds of times worse than a Whispering Death.

So of course, Praze would be naturally curious about he fact that the most cowardice of all the species had befriended the most fearless. _How odd_ Praze thought. _At the other end of extremes..._

"Well," Toothless began, "it wasn't really up to Stormfly and I whether we became friends or not." Praze looked puzzled. "As in, she is Hiccup's partner's dragon. We ended up spending a lot of time together, in excess, so eventually we became friends."

"Really? What is Hiccup's mate's name?" Praze then asked.

"I'm not actually sure if they're mates or not; with humans it's different," Toothless replied with a confused sigh before adding, "but her name is Astrid."

"Astrid? What's she like?" Praze the asked.

"Well, she's certainly independent, that's for sure. You'll understand when you meet her," Toothless added after he saw Praze's confused expression.

"You keep saying that but when are we gonna go?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, but it's getting dark," Toothless said as he looked up to see the stars appearing one-by-one, "do you think you could go and catch some fish for us to eat?"

"Sure, I'll be back in about half an hour or so, seeya soon," Praze replied as he took off and headed to the lake at the top of the mountain. Freshwater fish always tasted the best.

Toothless then sighed to himself as he began the usual routine of collecting the stacks of firewood and placing them inside the well-worn circle of stones, before lighting it with a small burst of flame and rolling onto his back to look at the stars. He then let out a deep sigh as his eyelids began to droop.

However, unbeknownst to Toothless, the black form beside him was beginning to stir. Slowly, the reflection of the fire began to cast upon two deep-amethyst globes and the female Fury's body began to stretch and tense silently. She quickly took stock of her injuries, wincing as she tried to move her completely dislocated wing. Then she cast her eyes upon Toothless, and they did not falter as she began to rise slowly.

Unfortunately for him, Toothless half-opened one of his eyes and was confused momentarily. That was when both of them opened and widened, and he jumped to his feet just to be pinned by her.

"This again?" was all he could ask as she snarled, and he was silenced by a claw to his throat.

"Answer my questions or I will kill you without hesitation," she growled, a fire in her eyes. Toothless growled in annoyance, as he had done merely a week ago, now getting exasperated.

"Would you try GETTING OFF OF ME FIRST!?" he exclaimed loudly in annoyance. "If you want answer then _stop_ pinning me!"

"AS IF!" she shot back in reply. "Who _knows_ what you did to me whilst I was unconscious? You probably _used_ me! All you males are the same!" she hissed.

"What kind of prejudice is _that_!?" he yelled back, the hostility in the air abundantly clear. Toothless was now _furious_. "Have you failed to notice that you aren't dead? Your jugular was pierced! You've been in a coma for a week!"

"You might have just saved me for your hideous desires!" she yelled, outraged. "How can you affirm your argument?"

_Wait _Toothless thought. _All males are the same. Did she...?_

"Were you attacked by another Night Fury?" he asked suddenly and the tone of his voice changed back to normal. A glint seemed to flare in her eyes before she growled in anger.

"I wasn't _just attacked_!" she yelled as she her throat began to glow blue, "I was nearly _raped_, only to find _you _here attempting to do the same!" she finished with a hiss, about to fire upon him.

"_STOP!_" a voice came from the edge of the forest. Both Toothless and the female's head's turned to see Praze standing there, shell-shocked. "_First_ of all, Toothless would _never_ even _contemplate_ doing something so aberrant! How _dare_ you accuse him of such when he's been watching over you every night since you've arrived! If it weren't for him you'd be _DEAD!_"

The female looked shocked, but Toothless just smiled. _Thanks Praze, _he thought. It turns out that Praze had never left him, but instead hid in the bushes so as to scare him.

The female was still too shocked to move, as she was now inspecting the young Fury on the edge of the forest. _He's just a kid, _she thought. She turned her head back to Toothless, who was trying to hold in his laughter. "What's so funny?" she hissed.

"Oh, nothing," he replied, barely keeping the laughs at bay, "but you just got _told_!" he finished and he burst out laughing. On the inside, the female softened. She knew that she had rushed her accusations the instant the younger Fury had shown up. But on the _outside_, she wasn't going to let him know anything about her. She slowly got off of him before wincing at her wing again. "You should really be careful with that wing of yours," Toothless said as he got up.

"I don't need your sympathy," she replied hotly. "But...thank you for saving me," she relented. "And I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."

"It's okay. You seem to have gone through a traumatic time before you arrived here," Toothless said as he laid back down on the sand and faced the fire. "Praze, you can go and get the fish now. For all three of us, thanks."

"Right on it," Praze smiled as he took off again. Toothless turned his attention to the female who was sitting awkwardly on the other side of the fire.

"You can lay down you know, I'm seriously not going to hurt you. Just relax."

And she did, laying down before looking at her wing.

"That's gotta hurt," he commented as he looked at it.

"I didn't ask for your opinion."

Toothless frowned. She was getting on his nerves. "Would you stop being so arrogant and accept the fact that you're injured?" he asked in annoyance.

"No," she replied shortly before sticking her tongue out at him. Toothless just sighed before laying his head on his paws. _This is going to be a long night_ he thought. She then shuffled her paws before also laying her head on them.

A moment of silence passed, the flame of the fire licking at the cold night air, before the female Fury spoke again.

"So..." she began, one of Toothless' eyes half-opening to look at her, "the other Fury called you "Toothless", didn't he? Is your name..." She paused for a moment, before covering her mouth with her paw, "_Toothless?_"

Several laughs began to escape her before she completely lost it. Toothless, whom's cheeks were flushed incredulously, was surprised with the complexity and beauty of the sound before he shook his head to clear it. "Maybe," he answered, looking away, as the female's laughs rose until it cut out abruptly and the sound of coughing replaced it. Instantly Toothless' head swivelled to see the female hunched over her paws, her entire body shaking and causing pain to her injured wing. "Are you ok?" he asked, getting up from his position.

"I'm...fine..." she hissed again before remembering her manners. "I just need a drink," she added, her cough dying down. "Is there any fresh water around here?"

"No," Toothless replied flatly, settling himself back down on the sand. He then looked at her to saw her sceptical expression. "I can arrange for some, but it would be easier if you would let us help you," he said, motioning to her wing. She followed his gaze to see each of the individual bones out of place on her wing. She turned back to him.

"Are either of you healers?" she asked. "If you're Toothless, then who's the other one? The younger Fury?"

"How about we make a full introduction, hmm?" Toothless then asked with a smile on his face. "I'm Toothless. You are...?"

The female seemed to grumble about something before she looked away for a moment. "Uh...I'm Sora," she replied quickly. _Too _quickly.

"Yeah, I'm not buying it. I don't know why you're so untrusting, but anyone can see that's not your name," Toothless laughed. "Do you think it's really going to matter?" The female then pouted.

"Fine. My name is Acacia, named after the purple flowers that grew natively on the island where I was raised," she replied, relenting. Toothless smiled.

"That's a beautiful name," he said absent-mindedly. His cheeks then flushed as he buried his face in his paws. "I meant to say that it was nice..."

Acacia then laughed shortly at his flustered state. "Why thanks, your name is beautiful as well," she teased. "I'm sorry, I meant nonsensical," she added, intentionally copying his own stutter.

"You suck."

"_You _suck."

* * *

><p>After that, the two had fallen silent until Praze had returned with some fish. Acacia would have to make-do with the moisture from the fish until she could gain access to fresh water.<p>

Then after their meal, Praze had introduced himself to her as did she to him. Then it was just the task of her letting him take a look at her destroyed wing...

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><p><strong><strong>I think I made up for lost time with updated fast, eh? Don't you think? I would <strong>****_**really**_****** be thrilled if you would leave a review on this chapter ;) it'd make my day to know that you guys care! Oh and use this chance to tell me what you think of the story so far! Romance is blossoming, don't you think? Have a good one and I'll see you in the next one!****


	7. Part One: Parley? (6)

****P********art One - #6 ********Parley?****

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><p>It was dark. Midnight, to be specific. Yet only one was sleeping peacefully, another, cautiously aware, lying on their back, staring at the stars. The remainder, also cautiously aware, was sitting across from the latter, never-ceasing doubt ruthlessly singeing the deep pools of amethyst.<p>

The fire had long since burnt out. All that could be heard were the sounds of the wind in the sky, coursing swiftly through the trees, and the sounds of the sea, gathered waves crashing onto the sand. The serenity was broken when Acacia spoke.

"How long do you plan on staying awake?" she asked, a hint of underlying annoyance in her voice. Toothless' eyes trained on her.

"Until I know you're not going to run away," he replied with a slight smirk.

"Why would it matter if I ran?" she questioned.

"Because for one; you're injured, and two; you're only the second Night Fury I recall I've met my entire life besides Praze, whom I only met about three weeks ago." Acacia then smirked as she laid her head back down on her paws.

"Possessive much?" she asked humorously.

"Call it what you will, but the least we can do is patch you up before you go," Toothless replied as he closed his eyes. "I'm not going to do anything to you, so get some rest. Good night."

With that he fell silent, curling into a ball to stay warm. But Acacia's mind wasn't as peaceful as he, for it was more of a jumbled mess.

_Recall?_ She thought. _The second Night Fury he "recalls_"_ he's met his entire life? What's __that __about_! She decided to ask him.

"Oi you. Don't go to sleep yet," she called out, only to hear a loud snore in reply. Her eyes narrowed. "If you don't stop pretending to be asleep," she began, a mischievous glint in her eyes, "I'll grab your tail."

No response. Well, apart from another snore. That surprised her. Normally dragons were very partial to their tails, and very private. They didn't let just _anyone_ touch them. Toothless didn't even let _Hiccup_ touch his tail unless it was completely necessary. Most found that they felt their tails to be precious and _never_ let anyone else anywhere _near_ them.

So when she started to move towards him, she was surprised to hear another snore emanate from his chest. _Maybe he really is asleep?_ she asked herself. _No one falls asleep that fast..._

Unfortunately for Toothless, she was right. And as she moved closer and closer towards him and began to walk around to his tail, a cold sweat enveloped him. _Damn it she's serious! h_e thought before he decided to call it quits."Okay _fine_ I'm awake!" he whispered furiously as he rose to his feet and backed away, legitimately scared, pulling his tail out of reach and into the safety of behind him. She laughed evilly before returning back to her position.

"Lie to me or deceive me again, and I _will_ go ahead and do it," she said with a smirk and he stiffened awkwardly. He definitely did _not_ want that to happen. "Well, now that you're awake, I wanted to ask you something, something regarding what you said earlier." His ears perked up.

"Go on," he said as he walked over to the fire-pit and stacked some more wood on top before lighting it again.

"Well, you know how you said that I was only the second Fury you recalled you'd met in your life?" she asked and Toothless nodded, albeit he was unsure of where she was going with it. "Okay. I want to know what you meant by "recalled"."

Toothless then sighed deeply before relenting. He might as well tell her because after all, it _might_ just get her to stay long enough for them to help fix her wing. Now that she was curious he was sure that she wouldn't just up and leave. "It's a long story."

"A little cliché, but I have time," she said with a smile. Toothless sighed again. "Please?"

"Fine," he grumbled as he began to tell her of the Red Death, and how he escaped, steadily leaving out all the details to do with Hiccup and humans. He still didn't trust her fully.

* * *

><p>By the time Toothless had finished telling his story, the fire had burnt out once again. But nonetheless, Acacia was amazed at his isolation. Not knowing who you were or even how long you were enslaved for was a serious detriment in one's life.<p>

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that, but where have you been all that time since?" she asked him but he shook his head with a mischievous smile.

"You didn't trust me enough to tell me your own _name_, what makes you think I'm going to trust you and open my life to you?" he asked. Acacia's face drooped.

"You're right, sorry about that. Will you tell me the rest of the story if I stay?" she then asked, hope in her eyes. Toothless smiled triumphantly.

"Depends, you'll have to let us fix that wing of yours too."

Acacia pouted. "Fine."

"Good," Toothless smiled before laying down in the sand. "Oh and Acacia's a mouthful so I'm just going to go through the process of finding a nickname for you," he added, earning a growl from her.

"No way! My name is just fine!" she exclaimed before Toothless shook his head with an immaculately mischievous smile. "You're a real ace in the whole," she grumbled before Toothless shouted out, startling her.

"Ace! That's _perfect!_ Acacia, Ace. It works, too! All right, I'm going to call you Ace," Toothless resolved earning himself anothergrowl_. _

"Whatever..._Toothless_! You're name's so stupid I don't even have to make up a nickname to insult you," she retorted, but he could only laugh at her futile attempt to exasperate him.

"Goodnight, Ace," he chuckled again, narrowly avoiding the stone that she'd thrown at him. Soon enough he began to fall asleep and Ace was left to her thoughts.

_Ace...I like it _she thought with a smile. She'd never let him know, though.

* * *

><p>Not long after that, Ace had fallen asleep peacefully, and she slept peacefully the entire night. But now it was morning, Toothless was hunting fish for breakfast, Praze was trying to look at Ace's wing, and she was resisting in the most <em>upmost<em> fashion of hiding up a tree.

"Acacia would you please come down?" Praze asked the scowling female Fury.

"No," she replied, sticking her tongue out at him. "My wing is perfectly fine, see?" she asked, holding up her good wing.

"Yes, I see," Praze replied as he rolled his eyes. "Now let me take a look at your _injured_ wing..."

"No."

"Acacia...Toothless told me I had to fix you up! Please! Why is that so difficult?" Praze called back in the lowest yell he could. Praze was the type of dragon who liked to stay silent in the sidelines, so yelling wasn't really his thing.

"I don't care what Toothless said, _I_ said NO!" she yelled back as she laid against the trunk of the tree, the branch she was on _barely_ supporting her weight. Not that she weighed much more than an average Night Fury, her physique was that of a very-fit dragon. It was just that the branch was simply _too thin_.

Praze sighed before he noticed the slight creak sound the branch made, before his eyes widened. "Acacia!" he called out as the branch snapped and she began to fall. However, thankfully, her fall was cushioned by a black mass.

"Ow..." Toothless muffled through a mouth full of fish.

"I'm so sorry!" Ace exclaimed as she quickly hopped off him and helped him up. "Are you ok?"

"I should be asking you that," Toothless replied as he put down the fish. "Do you know what could have happened if I hadn't have been there to cushion your fall?" he asked. "You could have been in a _lot_ of pain if you'd landed on your wing, then you wouldn't be able to fly for a _much_ longer time," he said before turning to Praze. "I thought I told you to take a look at it?"

"I tried but she wouldn't let me..." Praze trailed with a sigh. "I'm sorry Toothless..."

"Fine," was suddenly heard from Ace's mouth.

"_Fine_ what?" Praze asked, confused.

"Fine, I'll let you look at my wing," she replied with a weak smile. "I just didn't want you to look at it because I don't like being hurt, and I knew that putting the bones back in place would hurt. However, I know that it would become more serious the more it stays like that, so just this once I'll let you look at it."

"Good," Toothless smiled happily as Praze walked up to her.

"Okay now, I need you to hold still," he said as he walked around to her side.

"Are we doing this now? Here?" she asked, a slight pout on her lips.

"Yes Ace, the sooner the better," Toothless replied and she narrowed her eyes at him. Meanwhile, Praze was confused.

"Uh, Ace?" he asked and Toothless nodded with a smile, making Ace growl at him.

"Yeah it's my nickname for her because _Acacia_ puts a strain on my mouth," Toothless replied with a flat expression.

"That's bull!" Ace exclaimed, making him laugh at her sudden outburst, before she turned to Praze. "He just wants to annoy me, don't listen to him," she said to him as she eyed Toothless.

"It's fine, I'll just call you Acacia," Praze replied with a weak smile. He really didn't like confrontations, they made him stand out too much. He had a feeling that Toothless would somehow exploit that in the future.

"Thank you," she replied with a smile before turning to Toothless and poking her tongue out at him. "See?" she asked him. "Praze is polite, and calls me by my name!"

Toothless pouted flatly before looking away.

"I'm still going to call you Ace-"

"-TOOTHLESS!" she exclaimed loudly, scaring the life out of Praze as Toothless let out a mangled gasp and jumped to hide behind a tree.

"I brought you fish-" he began an attempt to atone before a fish hit him square in the face, poking his head around the trunk was a bad idea.

"Why, you're so _thoughtful_," she replied, trying not to laugh as the fish slowly trailed down Toothless' face and revealed a frown of displeasure. The fish then landed on the ground with a _slop_.

"You're welcome," he replied emotionlessly as Praze and Ace burst out laughing. Ace then turned back to Praze.

"Alright," she said, taking a deep breath, "please fix me up."

"Will do," Praze replied before sighing solemnly. She was about to be in a lot of pain, so he hoped she would bear no ill-feeling against him afterwards. "This'll hurt."

"I know," she replied before shutting her eyes tightly. "Just get it over with."

And so, Praze began. He started with the end of her wing; moving his paws to the junction between the two end bones and quickly snapping them in a certain direction. Surprisingly, Ace remained motionless. No tear shed, no scream or flinch from pain. Nothing. She just..._endured_.

Toothless just sat and watched, wincing as Praze yet again relocated another bone in her wing. He was amazed at Praze's abilities and knowledge of healing, as well as Ace's resistance to pain. He made a mental note to ask the both of them questions about their respective qualities.

_Pop_. That was the last one, and Praze let out a sigh of relief. It was over. _Of all the reveries of healing, I...did it _he thought with a small smile. "Alright Acacia, now could you please flex your wing for me?" he asked and she did so, stretching it out and feeling relieved at the prospect of free movement once again.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed excitedly, a wide smile on her face as she began to stretch her wings out. Praze's eyes widened.

"Wait up! You don't want to be flying anytime soon, ok?" he asked her as he held his paws towards her as if to say 'stop'. She slowly pulled her wings back to her body with a small frown on her face, and was confused. "Look, your wing has been like that for more than a week, so the muscles around the dislocated areas would have been strained at _very_ bad angles. If you try to fly as you are, with those muscles supporting half of your weight, you could may well end up with an injury that will leave you flightless for the rest of your life."

After that extended explanation, Ace and Toothless were both shocked. "Well...how long do you think I'm going to be grounded for?" she asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Praze sighed as he glanced at Toothless.

"Well...anytime between a month to three months," Praze replied and Ace gasped.

"_That _long?" she exclaimed, her mouth in an 'O'. Praze nodded.

"Anytime sooner than that and you'll tear the muscles; an un-healable injury. I would recommend not flying until at least two months, because they will be fully healed by about three and if you fly after one you'll strain them and increase complete-recovery time," Praze explained. "The best option for you is two months if you don't want to be stuck on the ground for three. That's the least amount of time I'm willing to give you."

Ace seemed to be thoughtfully pondering before a condescending glare appeared in her eyes. "The least amount of time _you're_ willing to give me?" she scoffed. "You can't force me to do anything..." she trailed off with a smirk.

"With your health and safety in mind, if you attempt flight anytime before the two month period is up I will render you unconscious," Praze replied flatly as Ace was about to laugh, before she noticed the emotionless glare in his eyes. Something told her that, despite their obvious age and size difference, he was completely capable of doing so. Despite his youthfulness, he would do it without remorse. After all, it _was_ for her benefit. So she came to a decision.

"Fine," she huffed.

"Good," Praze said simply. "I'm glad we could come to an understanding."

Toothless was sitting back in both amusement and awe. However, he was getting hungry. "Ok, now that you two have finished bickering, may we please eat some fish?" he asked. That was a mistake. He then found himself with another fish to the face.

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><p><strong>And there we go. I'll try to get another chapter done tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up too high. Keep them at a reasonable level. I'm not the kind of person to be influenced by the amount of reviews I get to work faster or slower, but it is still nice to receive feedback on something I may have missed out on, or just general feedback on how I'm doing. It would be much appreciated and you may just make my day. Remember, I provide free entertainment, right? I'm not paid to write, nor do you readers have to pay to read. What do I get out of this? Enjoyment and self-fulfilment. Also good practise. But sometimes it's really nice to get those follows, favourites and reviews. Please keep that in mind as I steadily increase the amount of words in this story...and have a good one ;)<strong>


	8. Part One: Where the Mirror Converges (7)

****P********art One - #********7 ********Where the Mirror Converges****

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><p>After a week, Toothless, Praze and Ace were getting along well. The latter's wounds were healing quickly, the muscles in her wings becoming stronger by the day. Toothless never even experienced a single nightmare or vision since before Ace's arrival. He thought he'd finally rid himself again, only for his hopes to be destroyed as mercilessly as the last time.<p>

Because he thrashed about at midnight, yelling, screaming and carrying on with a cold sweat and tears raging. The cave ringed with the sounds of it, abruptly awakening Praze and Ace.

The two sat on the sidelines, the former only waiting for it to recede as the latter's heart raced. "What's going on!? What's happening!?" Ace whispered desperately to Praze, distraught.

"Speak nothing of this..." was all Praze could reply as he sat there, helpless. Ace continued to stare in shock and dismay.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help him?" she asked as she reminisced the last week on Amicus.

She'd arrived there, battered and broken, to be healed by Praze and Toothless. After that she was given a flightless tour of the island, receiving help from the two males to get up the mountain and up to the meadow, before learning about Amicus. Then Praze had her submerse herself in water and begin to make motions with her wings as if she was flying. He called it 'Hydrotherapy', and was supposed to get her used to the notions of using her wings properly so that there would be no weakness when she took off and began flying again. Toothless had always been there to make sure she didn't hurt herself at all, and was always teasing both her and Praze.

Out of all that, she could see no indications as to just what she was witnessing before her. He most definitely wasn't ill, she knew that much just by how Praze was reacting, sitting back unsurprised and motionless. But she could see through that and saw that Praze was tormented on the inside from what was happening.

_But just what _was_ happening?_

Much like Praze beforehand, Ace intended to find out in the morning, because Toothless was soon quiet. He'd cried himself to sleep.

"There's nothing we can directly do to help him," Praze replied as he faced her. "Don't even think about talking to me about it now, if you want to know, talk to Toothless. If he decides he trusts you enough to tell you."

With that, he curled into a ball near the side of the cave and began to drift to sleep. Ace soon followed suit as she looked over to Toothless, sleeping peacefully.

_I hope you're alright _she thought to herself, before she slowly drifted to sleep.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, a young man laid his head in his arms, slumped over a table.<p>

"You don't understand my worry," he muttered to a young woman that sat across from him, his voice laced with anxiety.

"Maybe not," her voice soothed as she sat next to him, "I may still have my dragon here with me, but I feel your pain Hiccup."

The young man looked up, tears in his eyes. "I'm glad you're here Astrid...but...I'm just so worried about Toothless. What if his artificial tail-fin breaks somehow? I might have used the strongest metal, forged with upmost strength and durability in mind, but that doesn't mean it may not break. He'll be trapped out there forever if it does, that's why I'm so worried." His head rested into his arms again, shoulders jumping ever so slightly, as Astrid moved to embrace him.

"You've got to trust Toothless, you know he's coming back," she whispered affirmatively before turning his head to face her. "Your ingenuity knows no bounds, Hiccup. His tail-fin ain't breaking anytime soon, with your workmanship I know that for a fact," she added and she detected the slight trace of a smile upon his lips.

"Yeah...you're right. It's not as if anything bad is going to happen, I suppose I should lighten up a bit," Hiccup said as he too wrapped his arms around her. "I love you," he muttered as he pulled her lips to his and kissed her passionately. After a few moments they broke apart and smiled congruently.

"I love you too," Astrid affirmed before their attention was brought to a ruckus outside. Curiosity and duty began to fill Hiccup's mind as he pulled himself out of Astrid's grasp and moved to the front of the house, shoving the curtains aside to see what was going on. "What is it?" Astrid called out to him from the table.

"I don't know," he called back, seeing a small group of people down by the port, "there seems to be a commotion at the port-" but he was interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

"Chief Hiccup! There's a stranger down by the port that just arrived with a small boat of a design I've never seen before," a deep voice boomed through the door. Hiccup quickly walked up to the door, unlatching it and opening, it to see the face of one of the vikings in the village. "Chief Hiccup, please come quickly," he called urgently as he beckoned with his hands.

"Just what seems to be the problem?" Hiccup asked him.

"Well it seems to be a foreigner, and he's armed. He has something attached to his side with the hilt of an axe! We think it may be metal inside the wooden part!" the villager exclaimed as Hiccup let out a sigh.

"That's called a sword, actually. Most foreigners don't wield massive battle-axes..." Hiccup then slowly trailed off as he realised that was beside the point. "Alright, I'll go down there and have a chat with this foreigner." With that, the villager nodded and made his way back down to the docks as Hiccup grabbed his dagger before inserting it into the sheath on his forearm. He then grabbed his flame-sword and attached it to his side before taking a deep breath and looking to Astrid, who'd heard the conversation between Hiccup and the villager.

"Please be careful," was all she said as Hiccup smiled to her.

"I always am. I'll be back before you know it."

Hiccup then pulled the door shut behind him and he made his way down the path that took him to the docks. From afar, he could see the flames of the torches that he called 'lamps' that led the way through the streets. Whilst Toothless had been gone, he found himself with a lot more free time. So, he put that to good use by inventing a new source of light for the village at night, in the form of 'lamps'; lanterns that sat atop a pole of wood that burned Zippleback gas much the same way as Hiccup's sword.

Yet as the lamps flickered in the wind, Hiccup approached the docks and began to weave his way through the crowd. Suddenly he found himself in front of the villagers and before him, was undoubtably, an intimidating figure.

It was a young man, roughly Hiccup's own age, yet was slimly built and taller. He wore no armour but a loose-fitting white piece of clothing that was tied at the waist by a black cord of leather, the short drapes the shirt just overhanging his black pants that lead down to a thin pair of black leather boots. A sword hung at his left side and, judging by the shape of the scabbard, Hiccup deduced the sword was slightly curved.

Hiccup had heard about those types of swords. They were one-sided blades that were usually tempered at a high temperature and were indeed some of the sharpest swords in the world. Hiccup knew all this from the books he'd managed to gain from the foreign traders that come from all around.

The foreigner's face was hidden by thick black hair that, at the front, just covered his eyes. At the back it was rather long, and had been tied back much like a viking's beard and just reached under his neck.

But as Hiccup was inspecting the young man before him, the foreigner's voice was heard.

"You must be the Chief, or leader, of this domain, are you not?" he asked him. His voice was of a cool and calm demeanour. Hiccup, intuitive as ever, could instantly tell that this foreigner meant no harm.

"Yes, indeed I am. How could you tell?" Hiccup replied.

"It's in your eyes," the foreigner simply spoke, and it seemed that the light of the flames had finally reached his face as the wind and blew out of his face. For a second, Hiccup could see his face clearly and was relieved. They say that you can tell a person's intentions and feelings by facial expression, even though some could hide it. But what Hiccup could see in this foreigner's eyes and face was _hope_. Hope, yet there was an underlying hint of urgency too. But there was another thing about the foreigner's eyes.

His right eye was an ice-blue, cold yet somehow revering. The left however was different. Its incandescence was best described as a deep virescent colour, as deep as the leaves of the forest in the midst of spring.

"Why don't you come with me so we can have a chat?" Hiccup asked, and the foreigner smiled.

"That would be much appreciated, thank you."

* * *

><p>Now the two sat across from each other in Hiccup's house. Astrid had gone home to get some sleep, but not before leaving Hiccup with a warning about the foreigner, and saying something about how Hiccup was too <em>trustworthy<em>. Hiccup had merely shied it off, saying that he had it under control. They both hoped so.

"So, why don't we begin with a name?" Hiccup asked as he let out a deep breath, leaning his head on his hand as his elbow supported it on the table. He looked outside quickly and noticed some of the villagers poking and prodding at the new craft that was down at the docks, and he made a mental note to apologise and tell the villagers off later.

"I'm Hakuryuu, nice to meet you," the foreigner said with a smile, before extending his hand out across the table.

"Nice to meet you too Hakuryuu, my name is Hiccup," Hiccup replied as he returned Hakuryuu's smile before his eyes were drawn to Hakuryuu's left ear. There was an earring, a finger-length chain of silver that led to a ball of emerald, but what was attached underneath the emerald was what caught Hiccup's eye. It was a single diamond-shaped black scale, perfectly shaped. Exactly the same as a Night Fury scale. "So what brings you to Berq, Hakuryuu?" Hiccup asked as he released his hand.

"Well, several things as a matter-of-fact," Hakuryuu replied before his face turned grave. "We shall address the most important matter beforehand as we have no time to waste." Hiccup's brow raised in confusion.

"And what do you mean by that?" he asked Hakuryuu, now throughly concerned.

"What I mean by that, is that Berq will be targeted. Not now, but in the future. Your involvement with dragons has not gone unnoticed...and some people are determined to make you pay for it."

* * *

><p><strong>Whew! If that wasn't intense then I don't know what is! Actually, just kidding, this is nothing compared to what comes. Aha, I can't wait until *************************************** (spoilers)! Ooooh this is really great for me to write. Now that we've passed through the character development stages I can finally begin the major plot premise ;)<strong>

**Merry Christmas to you all! Maybe leave a review as a gift and token of appreciation? ;) Cheers guys catcha soon.**


	9. Part One: Intrepidity (8)

**Part One - #8 Intrepidity**

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><p>Hiccup stared in shock at Hakuryuu, his face in a constant war over expression of confusion, sadness, anxiety and doubt.<p>

"What kind of people? Why are they doing this!?" Hiccup exclaimed out of frustration.

Hakuryuu sighed before intaking a deep breath and running his hand through his hair, unconsciously ending the motion at the single black "scale" with a flick between his fingers. "I guess I should tell you about these people first," he began, small smile appearing in his mouth," but first I would like to know one thing; have you encountered a dragon nest anywhere around here?"

Hiccup paused for a moment before becoming confused again. _He tells me about this threat, yet wants to ask such a question as that? _"Why do you want to know that?" Hiccup asked before Hakuryuu shook his head.

"Believe me, this is important. Have you encountered it?" Hakuryuu asked firmly. Hiccup relented with a sigh.

"As a matter-of-fact, yes. Both my dragon and I defeated the Red Queen and as you can see, the island of Berq is now populated with the dragons whom were once held captive by said dragon."

Hakuryuu seemed to retreat into his thoughts for a moment, several expressions flashing across his face as he asked and answered questions in his head, before eventually turning back to Hiccup.

"Now can you please continue with what you were saying?" Hiccup continued, now becoming annoyed. "I thought you said that we had no time to waste?"

"That is irrelevant as of now, for there is something far more important that I must address," Hakuryuu replied, his face growing stern. "Was there a Night Fury?" he then asked, surprising Hiccup greatly.

"Well, why would you want to know that?" Hiccup questioned, a puzzled look on his face.

"Because, it's something I need to know if I am to help you," Hakuryuu replied.

There was a moment of silence as the two exchanged glances, Hiccup only now becoming suspicious of the foreigner before him.

_You're too trustworthy._

Hiccup leant back against the rest of the seat as he let out a sigh. "So," he began, "you want me to trust you, without any proof of who you are, so you can "help" us? If you want me to tell you anything, I need to know a _why_."

Hakuryuu relented, knowing there was no backing out of it.

"I need to know because he was my friend. He might of escaped on his own, but since you're acting this way I can tell that's not the case. I simply want to know of his wellbeing," Hakuryuu replied. Hiccup was still suspicious, however, he agreed. He could almost hear Astrid's voice in his head.

Still_ too trustworthy._

"Fine, I will tell you, but you are not allowed to indulge this information with anyone outside of this island," Hiccup said and he received a nod from Hakuryuu.

Ever since acquiring dragons on Berq, the villagers all knew that there was no hiding it from the rest of the world when traders came by. However, the Night Fury was a fierce dragon and, listening to his son's request of keeping Toothless hidden, chieftain-at-the-time Stoick decreed that no one was to mention Toothless. Hiccup continued to uphold this decree, but decided to make an exception.

"Alright then," Hiccup began, before abruptly getting straight to the point, "he's my dragon. During a raid I shot him down before finding him out in the forest. I was going to kill him, but something stayed my hand and I released him. After that we kinda just became friends, I don't have time to tell you the whole picture now. I need to know if my island is in danger."

However, Hakuryuu was now at a loss for words, his face twisted with many emotions.

"What sort of eyes does your Night Fury have?" he asked, and it seemed that there was plenty of confusion going around on both parts, going back and forth. Hiccup sighed exasperatedly.

"WHY!?" Hiccup exclaimed, surprising poor Hakuryuu who jolted back slightly. "I'm sorry, but why do you need to know!?" he asked again, returning to his usual meek self yet retaining his authoritative nature.

"Because," Hakuryuu explained calmly, "Night Furies, as a species, are so rare that no eyes are the same. By you telling me what eye colour your Night Fury's eyes are, you're telling me if it's my friend or not." Hiccup's eyes widened.

"You mean there are more Night Furies!?" Hiccup exclaimed, endless possibilities going through his mind.

"Yes," Hakuryuu affirmed, "excluding myself, I've met three. Now could we please get back to the point; what colour eyes does your Night Fury have?"

Hiccup sighed as he leant back again. The fact that there were more Night Furies in the world had completely blown his mind. Perhaps their natural habitats were Snow Principles? That would make sense why Toothless and he had never found any other Night Furies, because they'd never found a Snow Principle. But Hiccup dismissed the thought from his mind. No other type of dragon had a natural Principle and he was sure that it was the same for Night Furies as well. Aside from that, Toothless, out of the seven or so years he'd been in Berq, had never seemed to complain about their Sun Principle.

"He has...emerald green eyes," Hiccup said, and Hakuryuu's eyes widened.

"That's him! I've finally found him again!" Hakuryuu exclaimed as he jumped up into the air. "It's been nearly ten years, but I'm sure he'll remember me!"

Hiccup looked at him strangely. "Just who exactly _are_ you? How do you know Toothless?" he asked, and Hakuryuu returned his strange glare before Hiccup understood the foreigner's confusion. "Oh, Toothless is the name I gave him. I noticed he didn't have any teeth, made a comment, and it kind of stuck. Despite quickly learning that Night Furies have retractable teeth."

"You mean to say that you don't know his name?" Hakuryuu asked Hiccup, now smirking slightly.

"You gave him a name when you knew him already?" Hiccup questioned and Hakuryuu shook his head.

"No, I mean the name that his parents gave him. Night Furies live with their parents until they're about seven years old, so their parents give them names," Hakuryuu replied, as if it were the most common knowledge in the world.

"And how would you know what his name is, it's not as if you can speak their tongue," Hiccup replied with a laugh, knowing dragons indeed had their own language. He'd seen many times where dragons were obviously communicating with one another.

"Oh, but I can," Hakuryuu replied, stopping Hiccup dead in his tracks. "It's called Dragonese, and as far as I'm aware, I am currently the only, uh, human, able to speak it. I can prove it to you too."

Hiccup retained a sceptical glare as he stared into Hakuryuu's eyes, trying to make sense of it all. "How?" he simply asked and Hakuryuu's face twisted into a grin.

"I'm sure you're aware by now that dragons can understand humans, right?" he asked and Hiccup nodded. "Well, would you like me to demonstrate? I'm sure there's a dragon I can talk to _somewhere_ around here..."

* * *

><p>"Hiccup...what do you want?" came the voice of a still-sleepy Astrid as she stood at the door to her house, Hiccup standing enthusiastically with Hakuryuu in tow.<p>

"We need to borrow Stormfly!" he whispered furiously, not being able to hold in his physical excitement as he began tap his face with a goofy grin on his face.

"...Why?" she asked, again, fairly sleepily.

"Don't ask! If you want to come along and watch, you can. Hakuryuu can speak their language!" Hiccup exclaimed excitedly.

Astrid stood at the door and stared at him as she tried to understand just what he was saying. After all, she'd just been woken up some time _very_ early in the morning. But when she finally realised her eyes widened.

"Stormfly!" she called out to her dragon, whom was sleeping just inside. Soon enough the Deadly Nadder arrived to the door and peered out suspiciously at Hakuryuu.

"Oh! A Nadder!" Hakuryuu exclaimed enthusiastically with a smile on his face. "Hello! Nice to meet you, I'm Hakuryuu," he introduced.

Stormfly just seemed to stare at him for a moment, not understanding what was going on. But she could tell something was off with Hakuryuu.

"Stormfly, he can actually talk to you. He speaks your language," Astrid said, Stormfly only now becoming interested.

"So, you can speak dragonese, hm?" she asked Hakuryuu, who only smiled.

"Yes, I can," Hakuryuu replied, his smile only growing in amusement as he watched Stormfly's eyes widen. Hiccup and Astrid could only sit and watch in wonder. Astrid, having only been woken, was slightly simple-minded. Hiccup not so much.

"Ok, I need solid proof. Ask Stormfly something like...like..." Hiccup trailed off as he realised he had nothing to say.

"Something like what I ate for breakfast today!" Astrid exclaimed before adding, "Well, yesterday. But still! Stormfly was with me when I had breakfast!" Stormfly didn't need telling twice.

"Well, if I remember correctly, she had cereal. Whatever that is," Stormfly replied.

"She had cereal," Hakuryuu said, and Astrid was shocked that he could actually speak their language. "Now Stormfly, I have a question for you," Hakuryuu began and Stormfly shifted her head slightly.

"For me? Why me?" she asked him.

"Because you were a part of the Red Queen's nest, were you not?" he replied as she nodded her head. "Ok, the Night Fury. What is his name?"

Stormfly seemed to ponder a moment as Astrid and Hiccup both stared in confusion. "I don't know," Stormfly finally replied. "I don't know what his name used to be, none of the dragons held captive do, because we were all in captivity for so long we forgot. The Red Queen brainwashed us nearly ten years ago."

"I see..." Hakuryuu trailed off as he began to think.

"What did she just say?" Astrid asked.

"She doesn't know because they all forgot their names when they were in the Red Queen's nest due to the brainwashing," Hakuryuu replied. "Would you all like me to tell you his name?" he then asked, and everyone became surprised.

"Toothless' name? How do you know it?" Hiccup asked, suddenly becoming suspicious. Hakuryuu sighed as he thought about it once again.

"Because, most Night Furies are named for their eyes. Not all, but a lot of them are. It's what defines them," Hakuryuu started, gaining their attention. "This...Toothless'...name, is actually Silva. In ancient dragonese it means "Forest", so he was named after his emerald eyes in that way. At least that's what he told me, anyway."

There were several moments of silence that ensued.

"You know Toothless? How? And now that you say it...I do believe the name sparks something in my memory," Stormfly murmured.

"Really? That's good. I'm glad you're starting to remember something," Hakuryuu replied with a smile.

"What did she say then?" Hiccup asked him.

"She asked me if and how I know Toothless, and that the name sparks in her memory," Hakuryuu replied, not taking his eyes off of Stormfly. "Okay Stormfly, I'm going to tell you something and I want you to think really hard..." he began and Stormfly nodded her head. "Alright. Do you remember...another Night Fury besides Silva, or Toothless, that was in the Red Queen's nest?"

Suddenly, Stormfly's eyes narrowed into slits and she let out a piercing roar, scuttling backwards into a wall.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!" she cried out in pain, clutching her head in-between her wings.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?" Hiccup then yelled, unsheathing his fire sword and lighting it as he pointed it at Hakuryuu.

Yes, Hakuryuu might know how to speak dragonese, might know of a threat towards Berq, might know of Toothless' past, but Hiccup didn't know just who Hakuryuu really was. He knew Stormfly, and knew she was in pain, so he was going to defend her.

"Stop," Hakuryuu replied calmly, grabbing onto Hiccup's lit flame-sword with bare right hand. Hiccup and Astrid both stared in shock with their mouths agape, wondering why he would willingly burn himself, before Hakuryuu turned to Stormfly and yelled out to her, "It's just the veil of brainwashing lifting, in a few seconds the pain will stop and you will recover your memories," and within a few more seconds he was right. She stopped struggling and got up from the floor, her eyes narrowing at Hakuryuu.

"Just who are you?" she asked as she advanced towards him, a fire in her eyes. However, Hakuryuu stood his ground.

"Thea, stop. Let me explain-" Hakuryuu began but Stormfly cut him off.

"Don't "Thea" me, whoever you are. My name is Stormfly now! I may remember my past but that is the past! I don't remember _you _at _ALL._ How do you know me!? How do you know Toothless!? How do you know Viri!?"

"_STOP_" Hakuryuu yelled, finally losing his calm. "IF YOU GIVE ME THE CHANCE I CAN EXPLAIN IT TO YOU!"

Silence ensued once again, both Astrid and Hiccup feeling lost in the wake of what just occurred, having no idea of the conversation that just took place between Hakuryuu and Stormfly.

"_FIRSTLY_," Hakuryuu yelled, continuing his anger as he took his hand off of Hiccup's sword and placed it onto Hiccup's forehead. Surprisingly, it was not burnt, but only warm. But suddenly, Hiccup cried out, a sharp pain in his head as if it were being split in two. "We can't have anyone being incompetent!" Hakuryuu exclaimed as Hiccup suddenly stopped yelling. It didn't hurt anymore.

"What did you just do?" he asked Hakuryuu, who just smirked.

"Why don't you just ask Stormfly?" he grinned as Hiccup turned his head to face the Nadder.

"Stormfly?" Hiccup asked.

"Hiccup?" she returned and Hiccup's eyes widened further as he turned to Hakuryuu and pointed at Stormfly.

"HOW CAN I UNDERSTAND HER!?"

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry I'm not being very descriptive here guys, but I'm on camp and I just wanted to get this done before New Year's ;) and also because I want to get through this part as quickly as possible. This is because as things heat up, there are parts I really want to get to writing and the best I can do is this for now. Sorry, but you should all be very intrigued by Hakuryuu by now...any guesses as to who he is? I'm sure someone will get it ;) and remember...nothing is impossible hehehe THAT'S ENOUGH SPOILERS FOR NOW!<strong>

**Seeya kiddleywinks. Have a good one.**


	10. Part One: Confessions (9)

**Part One - #9 Confessions**

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><p>A yawn emanated from Toothless' chest as he slowly began to stretch, groaning slightly as he peered at the still forms of Ace and Praze. He didn't want to wake them. Specifically Ace. He knew what came with that, for he could still feel chills from the terrifying nightmares the night before. The courageous act of telling her of them and their reason was too much for him to handle.<p>

Then, Ace shuffled slightly and he held his breath as his eyes widened. _Please don't wake...please don't wake_...he pleaded to himself. He then let out a sigh as he realised she was still asleep. _Better get out of here before she actually does wake up_ he thought as he simultaneously decided to catch some fish.

He quickly moved outside the cave and onto the grass outside, cold and damp from the rain that must have fallen during their slumber. Spreading his wings quietly, Toothless performed a hunter's takeoff; as silent as an owl in the midst of the night.

He turned back and looked at the cave as the first rays of the sun began to hit the wall, knowing that with Night Furies' heightened senses the glare would wake the two inside. _Whew...just made it_ Toothless thought to himself with a slight chuckle before his smile faded, and he slowly began to feel reproachful towards himself. He knew he was helplessly petty and cowardice for not confronting his fears of Ace knowing who he was and what problems he had. It was true that the two had formed some form of coherence in the light of their mysteriousness; Toothless still had no idea who Ace was, or why she was so beaten and broken when she arrived, near-death, on Amicus. Then there was Ace, who still had no idea just who Toothless was and who had no idea of his recent past.

It was also true that the two had formed a friendship as well as coherence, but with that friendship came questions. During the week Ace had been conscious, multiple times had she questioned Toothless, as he did her. However, they would both dodge these questions, which lead to a feeling of mistrust.

But then, with the events of the previous night, Toothless knew he had no choice but to confront his fears and come out and tell her. He was just scared and he felt vulnerable and exposed, and felt that he wanted to keep his secrets to himself as much as possible. However, he knew, soon, that was going to change.

After a short flight from the top of the mountain to the beachside, Toothless laid down on the sand and allowed the feeling of the granules against his scales to soothe him. But as he laid there, he couldn't help but feel useless. As he laid there, he couldn't help but feel his existence was mere detriment and without benefit.

Firstly, there was Praze. Oh how Toothless longed to help him find out more about his brother, but not for the life of him could Toothless remember anything other than the incident with the Red Death, where he was somehow injured. He remembered the words the Red Death spoke and had spent a lot of time contemplating on them. He even contemplated whether or not he was actually Viri, but had dismissed the thought. He dismissed it because he felt that the name was familiar, yet not his own.

Secondly, there was Hiccup and the whole island of Berq. Toothless had never wanted to leave Berq, especially not without Hiccup, and especially not out of a need to. He felt he was a lost cause. Whilst the presence of another Night Fury in his life had dramatically changed the number of nightmares he had from every day to, so far, once a week, he felt as if he was never going to get over the cold, harsh and incomprehensible fact that he murdered Stoick. He murdered Hiccup's father. If Hiccup were there, Toothless knew he would say something like "_You did no such thing! It was completely out of your control!_", but Toothless knew that wasn't the case. If he had tried hard enough he knew he could have taken back control of his mind and will, just like how he did on Berq for the last stand against Drago and his Bewilderbeast. That was what was killing him from the inside, and he knew that if he couldn't let that go...he was never going to be alright. He would always wallow in his depression and uselessness.

And thirdly, there was Ace. He hardly knew anything about her or why she was so secretive. It was her secretiveness that made Toothless feel as if he couldn't be trusted. There were even some things that Praze wouldn't tell him, even after all that Toothless had told him, that Toothless could pick out on.

And as Toothless watched the sun slowly come up even more from the horizon before him, he sighed a depraved sigh. He was never one who would ever cry, and the nightmares didn't count. He could always hold his emotions while conscious, it had just been one of the things he could always do. However, the line between containment and freedom, that had once been so vividly clear, was becoming blurred. Everything was hitting him like a brick wall, and he was dangerously close to completely losing it.

Toothless began to get up, ready to catch some fish, just as he heard a noise behind him. He turned his head and, unsurprisingly to him, it was Ace who was sitting there with a meek smile. He hadn't even noticed her arrive.

"How long have you been sitting there for?" Toothless asked with a slight smile, feeling somewhat awkward. He knew Ace couldn't fly, so he realised he must have spent a lot of time laying on the beach without realising it for her to get there by walking.

"As a matter-of-fact, I just arrived," she replied, walking over next to him before adding, "good morning."

"Good morning," he replied as he looked out to the sea. "I was just about to go catch us some fish to eat." He then looked at the ground awkwardly, not really knowing what to say next. Ace felt exactly the same, so she decided to be upfront.

"Toothless...are you ok?" she asked and Toothless' heart began to race as he looked at her. "Don't you dare say you are," she warned, a threatening glare in her eyes.

Toothless then sighed. He looked at the ground and tried not to make eye contact with her when he said the next few words.

"I'm not..." he trailed off, his heart pounding even more. "I'm not alright Ace," he admitted as he found the courage to look her in the eyes. _Those beautiful amethyst eye__s..._

"Neither am I," she said suddenly and Toothless' eyes widened before she turned to face the sea. "I'm very scared, Toothless. I've put both you and Praze in danger and I'm very scared. And I'll tell you why."

Toothless, surprised, then sat down as he waited for her to begin.

"Okay," she began, also sitting down, "when I was about four years old, I had a little sister. Her name was Leave, and she was two. We called her that because whenever we'd be doing something, she'd just up and leave at the most random of times. One time she left during a rainstorm and because my father had died of an illness when I was about a year old, it was just my mother and I who had to run out after her.

"When we finally caught up to her, we found a male Night Fury holding her. He wore a malevolent grin that I can still remember to this day, and I remember him call out to us, "Thank goodness! I would never have been able to have any fun with this one," and I know now that he was talking about _raping_ her," she spat out the words, Toothless' eyes wide and mouth agape, before she continued. "After that, he dropped her. He had been flying, and he dropped my sister, who was still flightless, into the landslide that was beneath him.

"My mother and I had cried out as we rushed to catch her, but the other Fury got in our way. He held my mother down and I rushed past him to try and find Leave, but before I knew it I was nearly drowning in the thick and disgusting mud. I felt as if I was going to die, but then something picked me up out of the mud. I thought it was my mother, that she had come to rescue me. But no. It was the male Night Fury, and his sick grin stared me down. I'd looked over to the "shore" of the landslide, where my mother's dead body laid. He'd raped her before slitting her throat.

"I remember completely losing it, bawling with tears. He took in my scent before leaving, promising that he would one day return to give me the same treatment," she paused, shutting her eyes tightly as the tears in the corners of her eyes ran down her face. She then sniffed slightly before taking a deep breath and continuing. "When he left, I went to look for my sister again. I followed the landslide for what seemed like an infinite amount of time, constantly crying, before I finally found her. She was dead. She'd suffocated in mud," she stopped again, dropping her gaze to the ground. "I then lived my life for another seventeen years, alone, without anyone there for me. Then, out of nowhere, he came back. The male Night Fury who'd murdered my sister, raped and murdered my mother. Came to rape and murder me.

"He found me with the same malevolent grin on his face. It was then that I knew I had to run. I had trained my body for the past seventeen years to make sure he wouldn't catch me, but he did, and it was when I fought back and scratched out his right eye that he decided I was not worth the time it took. That was when he pierced my jugular and...completely dislocated my entire wing. He set me adrift, and the next thing I know is waking up on this shore..." she slowly trailed off, nothing but the sounds of the ocean daring to interrupt.

A few moments passed in serenity, but not all was serene for Toothless' mind was a war front. Arguments presented themselves, solutions were dignified, and Toothless' clouded mind began to clear. Ace was in far worse position than he was, and he couldn't believe how he thought his case was bad. Her mother, murdered and raped. Her sister, murdered. Only for the same wretched Night Fury to come and try to do the same thing to her, seventeen years later.

Them Toothless suddenly felt a burden lifted off his shoulders, but not before it was replaced with a sense of natural protectiveness to care for the oppressed.

"A-a-and n-now...I've gone a-and involved...you and P-Praze..." Ace trailed off, completely bursting into relentless tears. "I-If he c-comes back-"

"-Then I'll kill him," Toothless stated, suddenly beside her. "I will protect you," he said firmly, his resolve solid. Ace looked at him and she stopped sobbing, the tears still rolling down her face silently.

"R-Really...?" she barely whispered and he nodded with a smile on his face.

"Of course," he replied, and he had to fight a sudden urge to lick the tears off her face, so he looked out to the ocean once more. "If he even shows one foot on Amicus, I will make him suffer for the pain and detriment he has caused you," Toothless affirmed and Ace didn't know what it was, but something inside her clicked and she smiled incredulously.

"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed as she jumped up and embraced him, her cheek slightly rubbing against his. "I don't know how I can repay you enough!" she continued to exclaim, and all she could do was hold the one whom she felt indebted to.

Toothless simply wrapped his wing around her in return, his heart racing from the sudden contact before whispering to her, "You don't have to repay me...and if you want to know, I will tell you who I am."

She then raised her head and she looked into Toothless' eyes with an enthusiastic glare in her own, their faces barely centimetres apart. "Really?" she asked once more, the closeness making Toothless' face heat up.

"Well, you told me your backstory, so it'd be plain rude for me not to do the same," he replied with a slight smile, and Ace smiled widely once again.

After that, Ace had finally realised the position she was in and moved off of Toothless to allow him some personal space as he began to tell her the true story about how he defeated the Red Death.

"Actually...the story I told you before wasn't entirely true. I actually received help from..." he trailed off, taking a deep breath, "...humans." Ace certainly looked surprised, but a smile quickly returned to her face.

"Humans, hm? My mother had always told me that humans were dangerous, so how exactly did this partnership come about?" she asked, and Toothless smiled widely for the fact that she didn't judge humans with the same prejudice as she did for him when she first arrived. That was completely understandable prejudice, however.

"Well, it begins quite peculiarly, with me leading the raid on the humans' island to steal and plunder under the Red Death's brainwashing, which you already know. However, this one time in particular I was careless. I got shot down, and in the process, I lost half of my tailfin," he said, and Ace began to look behind him at his tail. "Nope," he said simply, moving his tail out the way as a frown came upon Ace's face.

"Why can't I see it?" she pouted, but Toothless just grinned.

"Because, I said. You can have a look at it later...if I feel like it," he finished the sentence cheekily and Ace narrowed her eyes before pouncing at his tail. However, just as she was about to grab it, he pulled it out of her reach.

"Nope," he stated with a condescending grin, "not happening."

"Yes," she contradicted. "Remember? I said that if you lied to me again, I would grab your tail. You lied the first time you told me your story!" she exclaimed, jumping at his tail once more. And again, he pulled it out of her reach.

"Can we not just do this later?" he asked in exasperation, using the dragon equivalent of raising an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted to know about my past?" he added, and she sighed. He had her there.

"Fine," she pouted, sitting back down on the sand beside him. "But I'm going to grab your tail and look at it later no matter what, so nothing's changing there." Toothless wasn't sure whether or not it was the fact that she sounded so stern and sure about it or that she was actually going to grab his tail without mercy that made his heart beat fast.

"Alright," he said as he too sat back down on the sand, "shall I continue?" He received a short nod from her and he smiled. "Ok. Let's go back to the part where I was shot down.

"It was one of the humans that did it, during the raid. He just got a really lucky shot on me, and I ended up being trapped for the most part of the night, before the human that shot me down finally found me late afternoon the next day. He'd approached me, alone, with what I can best describe to you as artificial claws. He was going to kill me, but not before something changed in him.

"He couldn't do it. Instead, he began to cut through my bonds and released me. I was sceptical and fearful for my life at first, being under control of the Red Death, so I pinned him and roared in his face. But as I began to take off back to the nest, I finally realised that I could not fly. As hard as I tried, I could not do anything, and I ended up getting myself trapped in a large cove.

"So after another day or two, the human came to the cove. He brought a fish with which to offer me, which I ate rather profusely, as well as a thing that he was able to record information with. I remember tentatively trying to take the fish from him the first time with my teeth retracted, and that was how I got the name "Toothless". Under the Red Death's control and brainwashing, I lost my birth name and I was always referred to as "Night Fury". Anyway, the days went by with him not doing much other than finding ways to interact with me before one day he came back with something else. Do you know what he brought back with him? An artificial tailfin.

"Now, this was about seven years ago, so he's made improvements on it since then, but I could never actually fly alone until a few weeks ago. So, long story short, we grew a bond together before some stuff happened and we ended up defeating the Red Death together, but not without some loss. The human, whose name is Hiccup, lost one of his legs. After that whole event, the island, known as Berq, became an island populated with the dragons of the Red Death's nest, and we learned to live together in harmony. Now here's the part you were waiting for..." Toothless trailed off as he took a deep breath, and Ace shifted next to him in enthusiasm.

"Righto then," he began, "Well, after the incident with the Red Death finished, things were peaceful on Berq for the next seven or so years, before another threat presented itself. A human by the name of Drago Bludvist..." he trailed off with a wince, before quickly regaining his composure at the touch of Ace's wing on his shoulder, "...a human by the name of Drago Bludvist captured and enslaved dragons by his will, to kill off the rest of the dragons for his sick desires of revenge.

"On our way to negotiate with Drago, Hiccup and I found our way to an Alpha Bewilderbeast's nest, where we found Hiccup's long-lost mother and another few hundreds of dragons. He was a kind Alpha, I found that in the short period of time I knew him, for something terrible happened. Drago Bludvist arrived there, with his army of humans and dragons, to reek havoc upon the nest. But that wasn't all. He brought his own Alpha Bewilderbeast to take on the Alpha. Which he did, but our Alpha stood no chance against the sheer brutality of Drago's Alpha, and sadly, he fell.

"All the dragons were bent to the will of the new Alpha, including me. But then...something happened..." he then trailed off, fighting back tears. He took a deep breath before turning to her and asking, "I take it you know what happened last night?" Ace nodded slowly, still completely immersed in the story. "Well, that's because of what...happened next..." he trailed off once more, still trying to hold his composure.

"What happened next?" Ace asked delicately, gently placing her wing around him again to comfort him. Toothless smiled at the contact and her comforting before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"Well...Drago made the Alpha order me to...kill...Hiccup..." Toothless stated, making Ace's mouth open in shock.

"You were forced to kill your best friend!?" Ace exclaimed, disgust directed towards Drago heard in her voice. "That is just sick..." she trailed off, shocked, before she saw Toothless shake his head.

"I never killed Hiccup...but...I did something worse," Toothless sighed in dismay, sadness clearly evident in his eyes and voice. "His father...the chief of the village at the time...saw me about to fire upon his son and did the only thing a father could do..." he trailed off again as he felt tears come to his eyes. He quickly breathed deeply before looking at the early morning sky, the deep shades of orange lining the white clouds above them. "It was a direct hit. Hiccup's father didn't stand a chance..." he trailed off with a dismayed sigh once more.

Ace sat there silently, in saddened shock, as her shoulders dropped with empathy. "Then what happened?" she asked tentatively, looking at his saddened virescent eyes. He looked back at her in such a way that Ace knew it was something...terrible.

"Drago took control of me...and flew myself and every other dragon to Berq, where he began to destroy everything on it. Hiccup had no way to get there, all the dragons of Berq fell under Drago's Alpha's command, and Berq and its people were left defenceless. There was no hope left for Berq..." he paused, before a smile crept on his face, "...until Hiccup and his friends returned on the only dragons that were left in the nest; the hatchlings that refuse an Alpha's command.

"They all spread out across Berq, tasked with the job of distracting the Alpha as Hiccup flew up to me with Drago on my back. Drago boasted in saying that I was his now, and that Hiccup should just _try_ to take me back. So, as stubborn as he always was, Hiccup did. He took me back and forgiving me for killing his father, he accepted me back into his life.

"This broke the hold Drago's Alpha had on me, so I tipped Drago off, but with my tailfin as it was I had no other option but to fall. Courageously, Hiccup dived after me and just in time he managed to get on me, locking my tailfin into position so that we could fly hard-up, scaling the large Alpha's massive body.

"However I wouldn't have been able to manoeuvre his spikes unless I could do this..." he trailed off with a smile as he motioned for her to look at his back. Then he released his spinal fins and one-by-one trailed their way down his back and tail. Ace gasped and her mouth formed an 'O' shape as she moved over to have a closer look at them.

"Wow..." she gasped, a smile beginning to grow on her face. "How did you do that!?" she asked in amazement, clearly captivated by them. "They're beautiful," she commented in fixation, causing Toothless' face to heat up slightly.

"I would've said they were handsome, but whatever works for you," Toothless replied flatly, earning a raised eyebrow from her as he smiled smugly. His smile then faded into an open expression before asking, "would you like me to open yours for you?"

Ace's smile returned as she grew excited again. "Really!? You would do that for me? Wait does it hurt?" she shot at him and he chuckled lightly.

"Yes, I'll do it for you. It doesn't hurt, but let me warn you that it makes you feel weird," Toothless stated, motioning for her to face her back towards him.

"Alright then," she said as she complied and faced her back towards him. Toothless then moved forward and with his snout he pressed the pressure point in between her wing blades.

Ace instantly responded, as he did when Valka released his own spinal fins; flexing all along her back as a pleasured moan escaped her throat. One-by-one her spinal fins began to release and she turned back and smiled. "That's so cool!" she exclaimed, enthusiastically spinning around in circles as she tried to look at her new fins. She then turned back to Toothless, who had been chuckling in amusement, before her face displayed a conflicted expression. "I want to test them out!" she exclaimed in exasperation.

"Well, you know what Praze said. You can't fly for another month or so," Toothless stated simply.

"I know," Ace admitted, her shoulders drooping in disappointment. "Can you finish your story now so I don't try to fly? Also, I'd like to know what happened after you regained control." Toothless smiled again as she sat down, ready to listen.

"Gladly," he replied, also sitting down once more. "Now...where was I up to...?" he thought aloud as Ace chimed in.

"Hiccup returned and you kicked Drago off when you snapped out of the trance, before Hiccup got to you and you used your fins to manoeuvre the Alpha's massive spikes," she stated quickly, and Toothless smiled.

"That's right," he replied, before picking up the story again. "So after we flew up the Alpha's back, Hiccup took me up past on of the mountains on Berq before using a piece of something the humans use to cover themselves to cover up my eyes. At that moment I put my full trust in him and I was flying blind, yet not blind at the same time for he _was_ my eyes. He did this to protect me from the Alpha's command, then we made our way to the Alpha with Drago on his forehead.

"However we had a trick up our sleeve. Hiccup had invented a suit that allowed him to glide like dragons, and used it to fly to where Drago was as he spread Zippleback gas around using another of his inventions. After he flew past, Hiccup lit the gas with a spark and a large explosion forced Drago to slip and fall to the ground.

"Hiccup and I thought it was the end, so we came down to tell Drago he was defeated...but little did we know that he had a trick up his sleeve also. For when we reached the ground, Drago ordered his Alpha Bewilderbeast to cover Hiccup with ice.

"What happened next was one of the most panic-inducing moments in my life. I acted completely on instinct, instantly appearing before Hiccup to shield and cover him as we, in turn, were covered with ice. But...something happened. I could hear Hiccup beneath me, in the small amount of space he had under my wings, and he said, "Toothless, thanks for giving me a fulfilling life...if these are our last moments I want you to know that I would never have truly lived without you with me".

"After that...something snapped in me and I felt unrelenting rage towards the Alpha Bewilderbeast who dared harm Hiccup, and I felt something that I had never felt before. An immense amount of power surged within me, and the ice around me began to turn blue. I was confused, but after I shot the most powerful plasma blast I had ever shot to break the ice, I knew what it was.

"It was me. I was glowing blue as fire surged through my body and I felt as if I could do anything...so I turned to the Bewilderbeast...and I challenged him. The species destined to be the Alpha over all of the species...and I challenged him. The dragon who dared to threaten my home, friends and family. All I knew was that I had to protect them all, and to do that I had to get rid of the Alpha.

"For the first time, the Alpha spoke. He said, "You dare to challenge me you puny, insignificant insect?!", and I remember replying with the loudest roar I had ever produced before firing a massive blast into his face and I was surprised by the strength of it. It actually pushed him back, but he retaliated with a blast of ice in my direction. Which I quickly dodged, jumping onto one of the existing spires of ice, before sending another flurry of shots. All of which were direct hits.

"Then, suddenly, some of the dragons that had been fluttering around mindlessly began to fly behind me before starting to shoot the Bewilderbeast with me. He was losing the fight.

"So I shot another charged blast at him, seemingly much more powerful than before, which sent him backwards again. He roared a loud roar of anger as more and more dragons returned to my side and began to fire upon him.

"In a final ditched effort, the Bewilderbeast prepared to fire another blast of ice but not before I began to charge up one final shot. A shot that I will remember for the rest of my life. Because with that shot, I completely blew off one of his tusks. He was finally defeated and with one last roar of defeat, the Bewilderbeast vanished into the depths of the ocean. Berq was safe, Hiccup was safe, the dragons of the old nest became a part of Berq's dragons, and Hiccup became the new chief of Berq..." Toothless finished, taking a deep breath as he finally got it all off his chest.

Ace seemed to just sit there for a moment, taking it all in, before her mouth became agape once more and her eyes widened. "Toothless!" she exclaimed in surprise, "you're an Alpha!?"

Toothless turned to look at her meekly before smiling gently. "Was," he corrected, "I was the Alpha of all the dragons on Berq after gaining the title from the Bewilderbeast. However...I had to leave Berq after disrupting everyone from their sleep when I woke every night like I did last night, screaming and carrying on. I actually transferred my Alpha status to the most respectable dragon I know; Cloudjumper, a Stormcutter, who I could best describe as my mentor or a big brother."

"Wow..." was all she could say as she sat there in amazement. "So that's why you're here on Amicus..." she trailed off in thought. After a moment Toothless decided to ask her something.

"Say, Ace, do you remember when I asked you about why you didn't feel pain?" he asked and she turned to face him.

"Yeah...and I'm guessing you want to know the answer, right?" she asked, and Toothless nodded briefly. "Well...I grew up by myself. I had to learn to disassociate or I would never had let go of the murder of my mother and sister." Toothless's eyes widened as she said this, and he quickly looked her in the eyes.

"Ace..." he started, and she could see the glimpse of hope in his eyes. "I need you to tell me how you do that...I need your help so I can get rid of these nightmares! You can help me!" he exclaimed, finally finding a firm base of hope on which to build his mentality on. "Please...you're the last chance I have," he pleaded.

Ace was momentarily surprised, but she quickly regained herself with a smile. "I can't promise anything, but I will try my best to help you."

Toothless stepped back before he turned to the mountain quickly. "We should go get Praze now so we can get some fish and eat breakfast together," he said, just as a rustling sound was heard from the forest edge next to them.

"Don't bother..." a voice muttered as Praze walked out of the bushes with a guilty look on his face.

"Praze?" Toothless asked in surprise, before his expression hardened and his brow raised. "Were you eavesdropping?"

"I..." Praze trailed off, not finding the words he wanted to say. "I didn't want to eavesdrop, but I didn't leave when I realised you two were talking so I guess I was..." he trailed off again as he looked to the ground guiltily. "I intended to find you two after you left so we could get some fish, so I follow your scent here to find you talking and kinda just ended up eavesdropping. I'm sorry..."

"I'm not the one you should be saying sorry, Ace is," Toothless replied. "I already told you my story, it's Ace's privacy you intruded."

Praze nodded before he turned to Ace and he bowed his head to the ground slightly. "I'm very sorry Acacia, I hope you forgive me," he said as Ace chuckled softly.

"It's fine, Praze, and just call me Ace," she replied as Toothless looked at her with a brow raised.

"I thought you didn't like being called that?" he asked with a smirk, causing a blush to form on her face.

"Yeah well seventeen years without anyone talking to you means you don't get to really hear what being called by your name sounds like, so I've decided I'd prefer to be called Ace," she replied flatly, turning to hide the blush on her face. "Not that it was because you made a good suggestion or anything, it just fits."

Toothless smirked once again. "Yeah keep telling yourself that," he jested smugly and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Um..." Praze began, the two older furies turning to look at him. "I feel as if I can't redeem myself...that I still have to atone for eavesdropping."

"Oh, Praze...it's ok. I said I forgive you," Ace said soothingly.

"I'm not a hatchling," Praze snapped suddenly. "I'm far from it...not just age-wise," he added with a sigh, somewhat relenting for his snap at her. "I'll tell you both my story...does that sound fair?"

Toothless and Ace both sighed. There was no convincing him.

"Whatever works..." Toothless replied and Praze smile briefly before his expression changed to that of a solemn nature.

"However, I must have your word that your view of me will not change after tell you some...disturbing...events that have happened...ok?" he asked them and they both nodded. "Ok...so let me begin.

"I grew up in some sort of pack that was filled with all sorts of different species of dragons, with my mother and father as the pack leaders. I remember that since birth I was trained by the pack's healer in everything to do with medicine, as my mother was very insistent on me learning it, being a healer herself, and my father took me in as his apprentice to train me how I to fight so I could one day lead our pack.

"My early years passed quickly and before I knew it I was seven and my mother began to teach me advanced medicinal practices, whilst my father began advanced combat techniques with me. Whilst these were relatively hard tasks, I found them quite by easy and they came to me naturally. My parents said that their skills paled in comparison to mine, that I perfected everything they taught me. My mother always taught me to help those in need, and my father would always say, "Respect depravity, but always try to help those who have fallen into it."

"And I had fully abided by that quote until the peace was disrupted. The dragons of our pack staged a coup d'état and murdered my parents, establishing new pack leaders as if nothing happened. They did nothing with me...they murdered them when I was out doing God knows what when I should've been there with them!" he exclaimed sadly, having to take a breath before continuing. "I arrived back to find they had both died in an "accident", which I believed fully until the daughter of the Nightmare who led the coup d'état made a stupid comment, revealing the truth to me.

"As you can imagine...the next..." he paused with a sigh, "...events...may depict an ugly scene. I instantly headed towards the new pack leaders to question them..."

* * *

><p><em>I stared at her, the comment sinking in and burning deep into my flesh. The Nightmare before me, who'd always teased and picked on me, suddenly made the worst kind of comment imaginable.<em>

_"Come now Praze, you should have just died with your parents you lousy piece of shit," she'd said._

_"The hell is your problem? If I had been there to save them, they'd still be here today!" I retorted back, anger building inside me._

_"Ha! Don't make me laugh! If you were there with them we would have just killed you along with them! Don't you get it yet? Your parents were replaced, that was just a cover story to shut you up! We took them out!" she laughed wholeheartedly and I was just about ready to burst._

_"That's bull!" I yelled and I flew into the night air, directing myself towards the large fire at which the pack leaders were feasting and drinking. Within seconds I arrived there to smell the reek of fermented fruits and dead meat. "Where are you Treeth!?" I yelled, landing by the large fire. Turning, I saw him just off and talking with another dragon. He saw me coming and motioned for the dragon to move away._

_"What is it Praze?" the Nightmare asked in an annoyed manner and I could smell his intoxication from his breath._

_"Did you murder my parents?" I asked him coldly, and his grin faded. Everyone around me seemed to quiet down yet his smile returned again._

_"It's ok, everyone. We knew he'd find out eventually," he called out to them before turning back to me. "To put it simply, your parents were pack leaders long enough," he jested mockingly, turning to the rest of the group, "you've got to share, am I right?" he called out to them, many laughing in return as they began to continue talking and ignoring me._

_Words could not express the pure incomprehensible hatred I began to feel...and at that specific moment I could hear my father in my head._

Respect depravity, but always try to help those who have fallen into it.

No..._ I thought. _Respect depravity...but never forgive those who have fallen into it!

_"HOW DARE YOU!?" I exclaimed, stopping the feast once again. I could barely contain myself from absolutely ripping everyone to shreds and the only thing stopping me was my morals...but they weren't going to last long. "THEY CARED FOR YOU ALL NO MATTER WHAT, AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY THEM!?" I yelled, tears beginning to build in my eyes._

_Treeth looked as if he was going to speak out of annoyance once again, but not before his daughter walked up next to me with a smirk on her face._

_"Aw poor Praze...you want your mommy? Do you? Well you can't do a single thing! You should've seen the look on her face when we slit her throat! Her last words were "don't hurt Praze..." HOW PATHETIC-"_

_The next thing I knew, her severed head was laying on the ground near her body, swiftly soaking in her own blood. My claws dripped with the stuff, my face emotionless, my anger still seething. Pure unadulterated rage flowed through my veins._

_The crowd grew very still, then shock began to resound as screams, whispers and murmurs could be heard._

_A conflicted expression was worn by Treeth, who was just barely trying to comprehend what happened as his intoxicated mind was obviously deterred. His face then contorted in rage as he and other dragons roared and ran towards me then..._

_Blank. My mind vacated of conscious thought and I fell into a deep blackness, my body and primal instincts taking over through years and years of training._

_But when I came to, the next thing I knew...I was standing in the middle of a blood bath. Bodies were strewn everywhere, my mouth was filled with the metallic taste of blood as were my claws dripping with it. Some bodies were mangled beyond comprehension, and I felt completely soaked. Soaked in red. Everyone was dead._

_The only thing I noticed before I began to feel sleepy, was a faint glow of blue that seemed to be radiating off me as it faded._

_Then I fell into unconsciousness._

* * *

><p>"I woke in the morning to find no one around, no surprise there. I'd killed everyone..." Praze trailed off as he looked to Toothless and Ace, silently hoping that he would still be accepted by them. "The worst part is that I don't even feel bad about committing such an atrocious act. Does...does that mean I've fallen from grace? Have I fallen into depravity?" he asked sadly, the pure devastation underlying the question clearly evident. "C-can I even be your friends a-anymore?" His voice broke and tears began to surface as his pent feelings began to burst through the solitary shell.<p>

"Oh Praze..." Ace sympathised, only feeling sadness and pity for the poor soul before her. "No way have you fallen into depravity, you are too kind and loving a soul to have done so," she affirmed with a smile, moving over to the young Fury with his head in his paws. She then put a wing on his shoulder as she sat down next to him. "I believe that anyone who has the indecency to stage a coup d'état, against leaders who care for their pack's members no matter what, have indefinitely deserved their punishment. You are by no means in the wrong, Praze. You are completely right in your actions."

Toothless could only admire Ace for her loving sympathy towards Praze, her kind and tender words warming both his and Praze's hearts.

With a sniffle, Praze lifted his head from his paws to look at Ace with beady eyes. "Y-You really t-think that?" he asked, a hopeful glare in his eyes.

"Of course!" Ace enthused as she turned to Toothless. "You agree, don't you Toothless?"

Toothless then sat for a moment as Praze looked to him, the hope in his eyes breaking Toothless' flat gaze and spreading a smile across his face. "Absolutely, Praze. You can't let yourself be down for something completely untrue. There is no way you've fallen from grace," he said as Praze's face lifted once more, a smile spreading upon his lips as well. "You'll always be the kindest and pure-hearted dragon I know, no matter what you say or do."

"Thank you so much, both of you!" Praze exclaimed, hurriedly trying to wipe away his tears. Toothless and Ace then shared an understanding glance, both smiling at each other's helpful words and at Praze's resolving. Then Toothless turned back to Praze, a question on his lips.

"Praze," he began, gaining the younger Fury's attention. "I think we experienced the same thing. The blue glow...I wonder what it is. Don't you? Is it a trait that's only applicable to us Night Furies as a species?"

Both Ace and Praze seemed to sit in thought for a moment before the latter perked up.

"I remember my father telling me something about Night Furies having special traits that were only applicable to them, such as having different immune systems, as well as something that only activates in times of extreme emotion or need. The latter could be what we experienced, Toothless," Praze suggested, a thoughtful expression sinking deep into his face.

"That's true, especially if your father was an experienced Night Fury," Toothless commented, also deep in thought. "Is there anything else your father found out about our species?"

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid the last secrets my father was going to tell me were never told, as the coup d'état was staged before he did so," Praze replied and Toothless smile faded slightly. "However, he passed on most of those secrets to Viri. That's why I'm so desperate to find him...my father even told me that Night Furies were the closest species to humans, the only differences, aside from the obvious, being that we have two hearts compared to their one. Well, we only have one heart but it operates as two. He even told me that in ancient times, it was believed that Night Furies could transform into humans."

Both Ace and Toothless were taken aback for a number of reasons and as Toothless was just about to ask a question Ace beat him to the punch.

"What do you mean by "transform into humans"?" she asked, obviously intrigued by what was being revealed to her.

"As in we can transform into humans. My father said that he even knew how and would tell me when the time was right...but never did. I'm afraid that all these secrets lie with Viri," Praze replied.

"Wait..." Toothless began, a conflicted look on his face as if he were trying to figure something out. "Does that mean that Viri could be human?" he asked and Praze nodded his head vividly.

"The only way you could pick him out would be his eyes and double heartbeat. You know...Viri was named for his eyes..." Praze trailed off, as if he were trying to picture them. "My mother would often describe them to me...he had complete heterochromia, Toothless. One luminescent blue eye, and the other which he was named for, a forest green. In other words, a virescent colour. Which is what "Viri" is short for."

"Wow...really?" Toothless thought aloud as he looked out to the ocean once more, imagining the opportunities and new knowledge he could gain.

"Yeah...and I know it's a lot to take in, but no two Night Furies can have the same colour eyes either," Praze added, causing a gasp from Ace and Toothless.

"Why?" the two asked at the same time.

"I don't know why. But have you ever come across a Night Fury that has the same eyes as you? We are the rarest type of species," Praze answered.

"That does make sense..." Ace trailed off as she glanced at Toothless, who seemed to be thinking with his back turned. A cheeky grin spread across her face as she silently told Praze to be quiet, whilst taking her wing back from around him. As she crept towards Toothless she gave a wink back to Praze, who just smiled as he realised what she was doing.

Then suddenly, she silently pounced.

Toothless, who had been deep in thought staring at the ocean, only just noticed with his ears pricking up. Then his eyes widened as he realised he felt a pressure on his tail.

Behind him, Ace and Praze were looking at his prosthetic tailfin in detail. "Would you look at that? That's some neat work on the material used," Praze noted as he clanked his claw against the thin aluminium brace underneath the leather. "Hiccup must be a really good builder."

Toothless, his face heating, slowly turned around to see Ace holding his tail just before his tailfin as Praze looked at Hiccup's prosthetic tailfin. She looked up to him cheekily and his heart beat even faster.

"Say Toothless," she began coyly, making him gulp inwardly, "would you be able to flex your tailfin for us?"

It was at that point Toothless fainted and Ace burst out laughing.

"Did he just faint!?" she laughed, putting a paw to her mouth to keep from absolutely losing it.

"Actually, that was me," Praze replied, still looking at the detail on the leather prosthetic. "I accidentally pressed the pressure-point on his tail."

"Oh," she muttered, disappointed that her actions were not what caused him to faint. "I bet you can't do that to me," she challenged, standing up and pulling her tail behind her.

"You're seriously challenging me?" Praze asked and she nodded her head. "Alrighty then..." he sighed, moving over to her. "So you just want me to knock you out?"

"Yeah," she replied, keeping her tail out of his reach. "Okay on three...one, two, three!"

_Thud._

Ace hit the ground softly as Praze chuckled. "There's more than one pressure point that knocks you out you know..." he muttered to himself with a light chuckle before an idea came to his head.

He then quickly walked into the forest to collect some supplies.

* * *

><p>Toothless was pleasantly dreaming once more, and in his dream, he saw Ace's amethyst eyes staring out at him.<p>

_Wow..._he thought, the deep purple intoxicating him.

Then the two smiled widely as they entwined their tails, an incredibly intimate gesture between dragons, then their faces neared each other and then...

With a loud cough Toothless awoke from the dream, a horrible smell filling his nose as he gasped. "WHAT is THAT!?" he exclaimed, jumping up before tripping over onto the sand again. He looked to Praze, who held some sort of leaf that was burning before looking to Ace, who was still sleeping peacefully. Looking at her then reminded him of his dream and his face heated slightly, so he decided to take his mind off it by questioning Praze. "Is that what's making that horrible stench?" he asked, pointing to the burning leaf.

"As a matter-of-fact, yes," Praze replied as he waved it around, the smoke from it slightly drifting in the wind. "It's a medicinal plant that is used to wake people from unconsciousness when you burn it, as the smell activates receptors in the brain." He then moved over to Ace as he lifted the leaf to her snout and she reacted almost instantaneously, jumping from her slumber and instead of tripping like Toothless did she barely managed to stay upright.

"What is that _smell_!?" she exclaimed, gasping for clean air as both Toothless and Praze laughed hysterically. "Praze that was cheating! No fair!"

"What was cheating?" Toothless questioned, not understanding what happened.

"Well, after I accidentally knocked you out when we were playing with your tail," Praze paused and gave a slight chuckle when he saw Toothless draw his tail in closer to his body, before he continued, "Ace challenged me to knock her out as well. So I did, but she didn't realise there are pressure points all over the body that can be exploited, not just on the tail."

"You should have told me that! That's where the cheating is!" Ace exclaimed, trying to prove her point. Toothless just sat back in amusement as he watched the them beleaguer one another, before deciding to quote himself.

"When you two are done bickering, shall we go and get some fish?" he asked innocently, his expression flat, as the two stopped and looked at him then at one another. Then they both grinned and nodded to each other and Toothless' face dropped. _What have I done?_ he thought in despair.

"I bet it's pretty cold out in the water this early in the morning, eh Toothless?" Ace asked, a condescending smirk growing on her face as both she and Praze slowly began to move towards him.

"Now, now...guys..." Toothless began to plead, moving back from them. "It's w-was just a joke!"

"Maybe you should learn to _rethink_ your jokes from now on then," Ace replied smugly with a growing mischievous smile, steadily nearing him. It was then that Toothless decided they were too close, so he turned tail and tried to bolt into the forest but not before Ace retracted her teeth and grabbed onto his good tailfin with her gums, her jaw power easily keeping him in place as Praze grabbed hold of his tail. That was when they both began to drag him to the water.

"No no no no PLEASE!" Toothless whimpered as he clawed at the sand in vain attempts to stop his movement.

Within seconds, he found himself being dragged along the warmer shallows before being thrown into the deeper part of the bay, completely soaking him in the freezing cold morning water. When he surfaced, he could hear the other two roaring with laughter.

"I am not amused," he said flatly, only adding to their laughter even more. He then rolled his eyes and, a mischievous smirk growing, used his wings to drench them revengefully.

Soaked, all three of them looked between another, then all sense of serenity was lost as it broke into an all-out war. Water flew everywhere as the three Night Furies tackled and wrestled each other until they grew tired, their bellies full of an obviously nonexistent breakfast so they decided to come ashore once more.

"Whew that was fun..." huffed Praze as he laid down with a wide and exhausted grin on his face. "We should do that again sometime."

"Yeah, maybe once we've had breakfast first," Ace commented, also puffed out.

"Well I doubt we'll all share our past every morning, because that'd get boring hearing the same things over and over again, meaning I'll have some time to fish for us," Toothless retorted, breathing deeply to regain oxygen in his lungs. "I think it's about time to return to the meadow and get some fish for breakfast," he added, the others chorusing their agreement.

"Let's go then," Ace said as she sat up and began to walk towards the mountain.

"Hold up," Toothless called out, having an idea come to mind. She stopped and turned to look at him, wondering why he'd told her to stop. _Probably too tired to move_ she thought to herself with an inward chuckle. Toothless then turned to Praze, who was just getting up. "Praze, do you think Ace can fly to get up to the mountain? It'll only be a minute flight, and I can be there to help her get up."

After a few moments of pondering, Praze gave his answer.

"Well, I kinda exaggerated her healing time, anyway," he began meekly, earning a glare from Ace. "Your wings should be fully healed by about a month, and the minimum amount of time grounded is actually up. But if you fly now, your wing will end up taking about a month and a half to heal, so it's up to you."

Overjoyed, Ace began to let out her wings and she stretched them gracefully, grinning ecstatically as she did. Then, she began to release her spinal fins and as soon as they were out she bolted into the air in enthusiasm, satisfyingly happy that she could try them out after all.

"You know Toothless...you didn't do that for me-"

"You're fast enough as it is, and I don't want you being able to catch me so easily," Toothless cut Praze off with a cheeky smirk.

"You suck," Praze replied flatly. Toothless then grinned.

"I know."

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><p><strong>AN**

**WOAH. Massive update here...just popping in to say helloooooooooo and that I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Now I wonder if you can figure out some things using the details of this chapter... ;)**


	11. Part One: Inchoation (10)

**Part One - #10 Inchoation**

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><p>"Come <em>on<em> you two, hurry up already! Otherwise the sun will set before we even get there!" a young voice enthused.

"Praze, it's not even noon yet," a deeper voice responded flatly.

"Toothless you can't talk...you're moving the slowest. Praze and I are eager to get there yet you're just slowly trailing along," another voice retorted.

The large black dragon's emerald eyes twitched in response and a smug grin spread across his face as he looked up to the sky, admiring how the wind casually blew the trees and their leaves around. The swift rustling sound soothed him as he continued to view their surroundings.

They were going over a hill, with the only wind being around them because of the height they were at, where they could smell the fresh salty air and view the mirror-like reflectiveness of the calm ocean before them as the sun pierced the crystalline water to reveal a cerulean-tinged bed of sand. There was not a cloud in sight and the vibrant blue sky was all that could be seen.

After having their breakfast, the trio left the meadow atop the mountain to head towards the cave by the beach. After bringing it up during their meal, Praze had decided it was a fun thing to do for the day and Toothless and Ace agreed, though the latter slightly more profusely, being excited to explore the island more vividly with her wings restored. However, as they continued to make their way down to the beach, Toothless could not help but feel something growing within him. Perhaps it was instinctual, but he felt that whatever it was, it did not bode well; that it was something of malevolent omen. But, so as not to ruin their day, he dismissed it and decided to get a conversation going.

"So Ace, what are your thoughts of the island so far?" he called out to her, who was only a few metres ahead of him. "It's Praze's island by the way, he found it," he added, and the young dragon seemed to beam with pride as Ace considered it thoughtfully.

"Well, I think it's an amazing island," she replied, taking a second to view what stood before her as she inhaled the fresh air. "The scenery is absolutely spectacular, the water crystalline and calm, an abundance of fish and two great friends to top it all off," she finished with a grin, making Toothless and Praze smile widely.

"Well I'm glad you like it here, it's a pleasure to have your company," Praze replied as he eyed a tree before, without warning, pouncing onto one of the branches. "There are plenty of trees to jump around on too," he grinned.

"Yeah I can see that," Ace replied with a laugh. "We're in a Rain Principle, right?" she then asked, and the two nodded their heads. "Well, I never really understood what the Principles were, seeing as I've spent my whole life without outside influence. You'd expect me to be a little more wild, don't you think?" she added with a laugh.

"Well, to put it simply, just imagine a Principle as a season. Be it Winter, Spring, Autumn or Summer," Toothless said as Ace nodded her head, getting what he meant. "Basically, a Principle is the name for the area in which these types of weather reside. Forest Principles usually have Spring weather, Sun's have Summer, Snow's have deep Winter and Rain's have normal Winter. Each of the Principle's aren't restricted to their own weather, though. Back on Berk, where it's a Sun Principle, it snows a _lot_. It's just generally cold there, which is really unusual..." Toothless trailed off as Ace took in all the information.

"Well, that's what I had thought but at least you made it a little clearer for me," Ace said as she gave off another smile. "So, what type of Night Fury are you, anyway?" she then asked Toothless, who became puzzled.

"Type?" he questioned, and she nodded her head.

"Yeah, what is your natural Principle?" she affirmed, and he was generally confused.

"I don't get what you mean. Night Furies have natural Principles?" he asked, and she nodded her head as Praze joined in.

"Night Furies can only hatch in one type of Principle. Let's say you were hatched in say...a Rain Principle, Toothless. This means your parents would have had to bring your egg to a Rain Principle in order for you to hatch. It's generally a random choice as to which Principle you get, but the frequency usually goes from Sun, Rain, Forest, Snow in order of how often a Night Fury receives that type," Praze stated, and Toothless began to shake his head at all the information going into it.

"This is confusing..." was all he muttered as Praze and Ace chuckled at his confusion.

"I hatched in a Snow Principle," Ace stated, and Toothless and Praze gasped.

"A Snow Principle!?" they exclaimed congruently and she nodded with a chuckle. "No way!" Toothless commented. "I've never seen one before..."

"That's because the ratio of Snow Principles to the others is roughly a thousand to one, but it's not impossible," Ace replied. "The island I was raised on was in Snow Principle, and it only ever rained one time..." she trailed off despondently, and Toothless realised that Ace was talking about the night her sister left and...the unspeakable things that happened. He watched her looked at the ground with a glint of sadness in her eyes...and he smirked in defiance of it. He was going to _crush_ that sadness.

"You mustn't dwell on the past!" he yelled as he pounced on her, casting asunder the thoughts of sadness and detriment from Ace's mind as well as sending the two of them rolling down the hill, toothlessly nipping and biting at each other as they furiously wrestled for dominance. After several seconds of rolling they finally reached the bottom and came to a stop, only one Night Fury atop of the other; the _victor_.

"Who would've thought you'd get beaten by me, eh Toothless?" Ace grinned condescendingly as she pinned Toothless to the ground. He tried to wiggle free but her vice-like grip was unrelenting.

"You got lucky with the landing, next time I'll beat you," Toothless stated flatly but Ace was unconvinced.

"You're just a sore loser," she jested with a grin, infuriating the black mass beneath her. Without taking her eyes off him, she called out behind her, "don't you think so, Praze?"

In a few seconds Praze appeared in the trees above. "Oh yes definitely. Toothless wouldn't even be able to harm a fly," he replied as he turned away from them on the branch, receiving a glare from Toothless.

"Try saying that when I'm free, and I doubt you'll say it again," he threatened and a grin spread across Ace's face, unbeknownst to Praze. Toothless' and Ace's eyes locked for a second as the latter motioned to Praze with her eyes and head and the former grinned as he felt her weight lift off him.

"You're all talk Toothless, I can't believe you defeated an Alpha Bewilderbeast-" he began to tease but stopped as he felt a presence next to him on the branch. He slowly turned and much to his horror, the black dragon was sitting there with a smirk on his face.

"That's it, you're done," Toothless grinned and Praze tried to take off as quickly as he could, but to no avail. Toothless had caught on to the younger Fury's tail and had pulled him down to the ground, where the larger dragon pinned him with his stomach to the ground. "Now, what should I do to you?" he casually asked aloud as a cold sweat came over Praze. The younger dragon flailed frantically as he looked for a way to escape just as he saw Ace walking over to them.

"Ace! H-Help me!" he called out to her, but she just sat there and grinned with deviance.

"Nah, maybe next time you won't exaggerate my healing time," she replied and his eyes widened in horror when he felt a pressure in his sides.

"I wonder if you're ticklish, hm?" Praze heard Toothless' menacing voice behind him, and he began to wriggle furiously as he tried to get out of the larger dragon's grip.

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!-" _he yelled before he was cut off by his own laughter, Toothless' paws digging deep into his sides. "_Nohoho, ah-STOP-hahah!" _he yelled out, frantically writhing underneath Toothless. After a few more seconds, Toothless relented and let go of him, and the younger Fury immediately jumped out from under him and to the safety of a tree branch. Not that it did him any good earlier.

"Next time you should watch what you say," was all Toothless said with a smirk on his face as Praze clutched his sides, shuddering from the vulnerability of being made to laugh that hard. Toothless then turned to Ace, who had been laughing the whole time the spectacle occurred. "Well, we now know that Praze is ticklish if he ever annoys us again."

"Hey! Says the one who's partial to their tail!" Praze retorted, earning another glare from Toothless.

"As if you _aren't_," he commented, causing Praze to smirk condescendingly.

"I'm not," the younger dragon replied with a smile as Toothless smirked in return.

"Prove it."

In response, Praze climbed down from the tree and held his tail out in front of Toothless, who was now skeptical of Praze's actions. So, he grabbed Praze's tail and inspected him and his movements closely. He couldn't note any form of nervousness whatsoever, but he remembered that he _had_ let Praze inspect his own tail when the younger dragon inquired about his prosthetic and without any qualms, either. Then an idea formed in his head and he let go of Praze's tail.

"Alright, now let _Ace _grab your tail and I'll be satisfied," Toothless stated and Praze shrugged his shoulders before moving over to her.

"Here," he said simply as he held out his tail to her before she took it. Toothless inspected the young Fury once more and found no notable differences in his manner. "See? I don't mind," he added as Ace let go. "It's just you, Toothless."

Toothless was still skeptical.

"I think it's to do with age; give it a few years and I bet you'll be just as partial as I am," he commented and Praze snickered at him.

"I doubt it."

Toothless just rolled his eyes as both he and Praze began to continue to the beachfront when Ace spoke up. "Hold on Toothless, how old are you?" she asked, receiving a puzzled look from him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, I'm just surprised it hasn't come up at all. You're in your late twenties or early thirties aren't you?" she asked and Toothless nearly burst out laughing.

"What!? What possessed you to think that? I'm _twenty-two_!" Toothless exclaimed and Ace's eyes widened.

"But I'm twenty-one! How are you so much larger than me?" she asked, shocked. Toothless and Praze could only narrow their eyes and tilt their heads in confusion.

"You know that we're both the same size...right?" Toothless asked, and Ace's eyes widened even further.

"How am I as big as you!? Maybe I'm just a little out of it because I haven't seen too many other dragons in my life before..."

"Yeah, maybe you're right on that one," Toothless chuckled and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Let's just get to the beach," she muttered as they continued on their way. "Now because of all that stuffing around it's noon already," she added, noting the position of the sun as it's heated gaze burned into them from directly above.

"What!? Really!? Let's get a move on then!" Praze exclaimed as he ran through the forest towards the beach. Toothless and Ace could only roll their eyes and the younger Fury as they were left alone in the forest.

"So what type of Night Fury are you?" Ace asked, reminding Toothless of their earlier conversation.

"Dunno," he replied flatly as he shrugged his shoulders, "I don't really remember where I was born so I really have no way of finding out."

"Really? That's unfortunate," Ace commented before something popped into her head. "However, I can turn my scales to white when I'm in a Snow Principle. I believe it's a camouflage function, so we could try out several Principles and see if your scales change to a different colour, though I'm not completely sure it's the same but it might be."

"That's incredible!" Toothless exclaimed, marvelling at all the hidden secrets Night Furies held. "How do you do it? I want to test it out right now. I might be a Rain-type."

"I just call Rain-types Pluvia. Out of the Ancient Dragonese translation. But anyway, to do it, I normally just think in my head "_I am snow" _and that does the trick," she replied.

"Ancient Dragonese?" Toothless questioned.

"Yeah, my mother taught me a few names like the names of the Principles. Rain is Pluvia, Sun is Sol, Snow is Nix and I'm trying to remember what Forest is...but I don't seem to-"

"-Silva," Toothless automatically replied. Ace looked at him with a curious smile and head tilted.

"Yeah, that's right. How did you know?" she asked, however he was just as baffled as she was.

"I have no idea..." he trailed off. "It stirs something in my memory though," he added thoughtfully as Ace shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh well. Anyway, are you going to try it or what?" she asked.

"Alright then, I'll try it..." he trailed off as he closed his eyes in concentration. After a few seconds, eyes still closed, he whispered, "any changes?"

"Nope."

"Dangit," he muttered as he opened his eyes and grinned. "At least I know I'm not "Pluvia". When I get back to Berq I'll be sure to test it out there as well." Ace stopped for a moment when he said that.

"Say, Toothless..." she began, gaining his attention. "I don't suppose...I could come with you to Berq?" she asked tentatively as a smile spread over his face.

"Of course you can! It'd be great for you to visit and meet Hiccup and some friends of mine," he replied as she shook her head, puzzling him.

"No...I want to stay there. I want to live on Berq..." she trailed off and Toothless finally began to realise the kind of life she had lead. Yes, of course Toothless had hardly interacted with his own kind before but Ace was on an entirely different level; she hadn't interacted with _anyone_. She was a dragon that had spent a life alone, without anyone there for her.

"Really?" Toothless asked and she nodded her head. He smiled. "Then of course you can."

On the inside, Ace was so overjoyed she almost began to cry. After living such a solitary life...the fact that she could live amongst others was nearly too much for her to handle and all she wanted to do was stay with Toothless. He made her feel safe; a feeling she had hardly felt throughout her life and especially not in the recent events that occurred before she found him. "T-Toothless-"

"Hurry it up you two! Or it really _will_ be sunset before we get there!" Praze's voice interrupted her before she could finish what she was saying.

"Thank you," she finished with a smile that Toothless could only reciprocate.

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><p><strong>AN**

**HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! Sorry this update took so long, it's just that I've been pretty darn busy. Please be sure to give me some feedback so I know how I'm doing ;) and the next chapter should be out much sooner seeing as I cut this chapter off. Oh well, see ya in the next and have a good one ;)**


	12. Part One: Trepidation (11)

**Part One - #11 Trepidation**

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><p>On the inside, Toothless' happiness and excitement levels were ludicrous. He didn't know why, but the fact that Ace was going to live on Berq made him feel insanely overjoyed. Whenever she smiled, it made him want to smile. Whenever she was happy, it made him happy too. All he wanted to do was spend time with her and have her in his company; all he wanted was to feel that feeling that he got whenever she was with him. He didn't know why, but the feeling he got when they were together made Toothless feel as if he were in pure bliss. But just what was that feeling? That was a question Toothless didn't know the answer to and he didn't care. So long as that feeling was there, he would be forever satisfied.<p>

Ace, who sat across from him, had similar thoughts circling through her mind. Unlike the content male before her, she was much less content leaving it without an answer.

_Why_ was she so insanely happy that she could spend more time with Toothless? _Why_ did she get the ridiculous urge to smile whenever he did? _Why_ did she feel happy when he was happy? _Why_ did she constantly want to spend time with him, _why_ did just being with him stimulate such a happy and blissful feeling? Unlike Toothless, she wanted to know the answers. But as hard as she tried she could not figure out just what it was. Which was why she had such a conflicted expression on her face as the two made their way to the beach, where an ecstatically impatient Praze was waiting for them.

"What took you two so long?" the young dragon asked them, obviously impatient. Toothless and Ace could only chuckle at that.

"Like normal dragons, we took the time to walk instead of rushing ahead for no reason," Toothless replied and Praze poked his tongue out at him.

"Whatever, we're at the cave now so let's go."

The two older dragons just rolled their eyes at the comment as the three of them made their way into the cave. They noticed that beside them ran a small stream that followed the side of the cave and down into the sea.

Being in need of releasing all his youthful energy, Praze had challenged them to try and find the source of the water. Despite his previous anxiety, Praze seemed to have overcome his fear about the cave. He seemed to be ever-adapting, despite being silent most of the time. Either way, no sense of anxiety had befallen Praze for the entirety of the hours the three of them occupied the cave, exhausting their energy to the point where they all laid in the entrance of the cave in an attempt to restore some of it.

"Hey, would you look at that?" Ace asked suddenly and Toothless and Praze's eyes followed hers to the stream, where an eel laid dead on the bank of it. "Must've died somehow..." she trailed off, walking over to it.

"Woah, be careful," Toothless said, backing up as he did, "eels are poisonous."

Ace and Praze just looked at him funny before they burst out laughing and Toothless realised his mistake.

"They're not poisonous, are they..." he muttered as they both continued to laugh.

"Ha, nope," Praze laughed and Toothless could only shrug his shoulders.

"Oh well, it still doesn't make them any less creepy," Toothless muttered, earning himself a look from Ace. "What?" he questioned.

"You wouldn't happen to be scared of eels, Toothless?" she asked and his eyes widened as he momentarily stood still. Then he relaxed.

"No," he replied quickly.

"Oh really? Are you sure?" she asked, a smirk appearing on her face as a cold sweat come upon Toothless. _Stay calm, it's not as if she's going to_...but his thoughts trailed off, eyes widening, as she walked over to the eel.

"O-Okay keep that thing away from me!" Toothless exclaimed, backing up as his voice broke. Unfortunately, Toothless _did_ have an illogical fear of eels and was literally terrified as she began to move towards him, the eel in her mouth.

"What's wrong Toothless?" she asked with a grin on her face as she pounced at him, making him nearly trip over his own tail as he frantically scrambled to get away from her.

"N-NO! Stay away!" he hissed as he zipped around the cave, the cave that was resounding with Praze's laughter as he watched the chase.

"Come one Toothless, stop being such a hatchling!" Ace jested as she continued to chase Toothless before seeing him jump into an area that made her eyes narrow with determination. Then with one quick movement, she cornered him. Toothless' eyes widened as he realised that he was trapped and he quickly looked around for a way to escape...but there weren't any.

"Stay away!" he hissed again, his heart racing as she neared him.

"Not until you touch it," she commented with a smirk as she moved closer and almost dropped the fish with laughter when he pressed himself into the wall as much as he could to get away from it. "Come on Toothless, it's just an eel."

"No...please," Toothless begged and pleaded as he slipped to the ground, Ace's triumphant grin staring down on him.

"Just touch it..." she began and Toothless shuddered beneath her, "...or I'll drop it on you."

"You w-wouldn't..." Toothless trailed off as his eyes widened.

"I would," she contradicted evilly. "You have until the count of three. One."

"A-Ace, come on n-now, stop fooling around!"

"Two..."

"Pl..Please..."

"One."

There was some serene silence before Toothless' surprise left him and a scream rang throughout the cave when he realised that the slimy and disgusting eel was now on him.

"GET IT OFF!" Toothless yelled as Ace stood back, before she was down and out, laughing all the breath out of her. He writhed around in an attempt to get the eel off him as the two spectating laughed to their hearts content, until he grabbed the thing and completely launched it across the room. Then after the few moments it took for him to calm down he managed to see the humor in it all and just sighed.

"Honestly, Ace," he began, causing the laughing female to wipe the tears away and listen, "you're just the most meanest of all the dragons I know. No joke." She just seemed to smile even more.

"You're just the most boring of all the dragons I know," she retorted. "And the look on your face was completely worth it, you were completely scared out of your mind!" she finished with another loud laugh before calming herself down again. Toothless sat there with a flat expression. Unamused.

"Can we please not speak of this to anyone?" he asked with a sigh. "You can't let the dragons on Berq know I'm...not fond of eels."

"And why is that?" Praze asked innocently, a smirk on his face.

"Because it wouldn't do any good as they're also all scared of eels! There's literally no reason for you to tell them," Toothless replied, causing confusion to fall upon the other two's faces.

"But...why did you ask in such a way that suggested otherwise?" Ace asked him and he smiled slightly.

"Because I was messing with you," he replied simply. Ace's eye's narrowed.

"You suck."

_"You_ suck."

"You _both_ suck...let's leave it at that," Praze interrupted the two bickering older dragons as the two said bickering older dragons glared at him. "It's already past sunset you know, we should be getting some sleep."

"Stay out of this, otherwise I'll pin you again," Toothless stated simply. That seemed to shut the younger dragon up, despite him having a point. "But you're right, it is getting quite late. What say we camp here for the night?"

"Sure," was the response from the other two dragons and Toothless smiled.

"Alright. Either of you want anything to eat first?" he asked and they both shook their heads. "Well, goodnight then," he added and they smiled.

"Night Toothless," Ace replied.

"G'night," Praze followed. "See you both in the morning, maybe then we can continue to try and find that water source."

Even after all their searching, all that Toothless, Praze and Ace found was a small stream that lead from one of the cave walls. It was a big mystery to them, and they all secretly hoped that the cave led all the way up through the mountain where they also youth fully hoped there to be the water source.

"Yeah will do," Toothless replied, giving him a smile. "But you can catch us breakfast tomorrow. Deal?"

"Sure thing," Praze replied and with that, he slowly curled into a spot on the ground. Toothless soon followed suit, but not before he noticed that Ace was no longer with them. He looked around and noticed that her scent lingered around the front of the cave.

_Did she go outside?_

Toothless decided to investigate and he slowly got up, being careful not to alert Praze. Though, it seemed his cautiousness was wasted as the young male seemed to already be in a state of deep sleep. Toothless chuckled to himself as he watched Praze's still form slowly move up and down as he breathed steadily. _He must've tired himself out with all the running around he did in the cav_e Toothless thought.

Within a few seconds Toothless was outside and as he looked to the night sky, he gasped. For in the blackness above him, there was light. The light of thousands of stars, gleaming incandescently, shining out through constellation and constellation of vibrant blues and purples. However in Toothless' opinion, what stood before him was every bit as mesmerizing as the beautiful and transfixing galaxies above him.

"Ace, what are you doing out here?" he called out, his voice soft. Her amethyst eyes trained on him as a smile spread on her face.

"I'm just admiring the stars and constellations," she replied, matching his own soft voice before turning her head back to the sky. "Aren't they beautiful?"

But Toothless' eyes weren't to the sky. "Yeah," he sighed an infatuated sigh before eventually taking his eyes off the dragoness. "The vibrant colours... are breathtaking. I often wonder about the complexity and beauty of the night sky...about how intricate and pensive it is."

Ace smiled as she turned to him. "I agree...it's like the sky beckons to hold me in a totalitarian embrace. It's just wondrous and alluring and...when I was alone...it was my only comfort."

Toothless looked upon her with sad eyes, feeling for her lonely life once more. "And what a comfort it must have been," he said, a smile creeping in the corner of his mouth.

"Indeed," she replied, a smile of her own forming. She then shifted on the sand as she turned her body to face him and said, "I'm going to sleep out here tonight, so don't worry about me," before she cracked her neck and back and curled up onto the sand, her gaze constant upon the night sky. Her equilibrium was, for the most part, satiated by both the beauty of the stars and the presence of the dragon beside her and after a few more moments of gazing, she finally let her eyelids droop and rested her head on her paws.

Silence ensued. That is, until the sound of compacting sand could be heard as it grew nearer to her. Confused, Ace lifted her head and opened her eyes just as she felt a pressure on her back and she turned to see Toothless lying down next to her. He turned and looked at her and saw her puzzled expression.

"What?" he asked casually as he made himself more comfortable. "It's gonna be a windy night tonight. You'll freeze to death otherwise, so I'll sleep out here with you."

Ace's face at that moment would have heated at their closeness had she not already been warmed by Toothless' care and consideration for her, so she just sighed and laid her head back on her paws. "Thanks," she whispered to him and he just smiled as he curled up and laid his own head against his own paws, letting sleep's embrace take hold of him.

Ace felt...safe. Comforted. Cared for. _Loved._ Her face heated at a sudden realisation. That feeling she got, that wonderful blissful feeling, _was...love._ She _loved_ him. _It all makes sense now!_ she thought, whilst at the same time remembering who she was leaning up against. She smiled. She was exuberant with her newfound divergent; he cared for her and protected her, so she was going to care for him and protect him. _I love you, Toothless_ she thought to herself with a wide smile.

With those thoughts circling her mind, she slowly drifted off to have many happy dreams she wouldn't recall the next morning. Perhaps that was for the best, however.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**

**Ok, if you think this story is good could you pleeeeease let my know by posting a review? If you truly enjoy reading, let me know! I will personally answer any questions and say thank you at the end of the next chapter for EVERYONE that reviews! Have fun ;) and have a good one! **

**P.S if everyone that has followed the story leaves a review, I would dedicate all of my free time towards writing the story. And even if we don't get everyone, the more we get will determine how fast and how motivated I'll be (because I'll know how many of you want me to write.) It isn't like I need reviews, heavens no, I would just really like to have some feedback from you! :)**


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